The tire bosses’ demands to cut wages, jobs, and retiree benefits, are part of the broader drive by the ruling capitalists to shore up declining profits and beat competitors abroad at the expense of working people. The recent successes by the U.S. auto and airline bosses in getting the acquiescence of the union officialdom to gut wages, pensions, health care, and job safety, have only emboldened Goodyear and other employers in their profit offensive.

Working people know well what this concessionary drive means for job conditions and our very lives. This week another coal miner was killed on the job in West Virginia, bringing the nationwide total for the year to 43, the highest number in over a decade. The death toll in the coal mines—to say nothing of fatality and injury rates at construction sites and other industries—is a brutal reminder of what the bosses think of us, and what will happen to our class if their profit-drive is left unchecked.

Goodyear, the top U.S. tire-maker, is trying to go as far as it can toward breaking the union. It is aggressively recruiting scabs. It has announced plans to close its plant in Tyler, Texas, arrogantly writing off one of the main demands of the strikers. If Goodyear succeeds in its anti-union assault, it will put more blood in the mouths of other companies, like Bridgestone/Firestone, waiting to see how far they can go on similar assaults they are planning.

The Goodyear strikers are using union power to stand up to the bosses’ offensive. Organizing to bring our collective strength to bear is the only weapon working people have to fight back.

Support the Goodyear workers’ cause! A victory by the striking Steelworkers will be a victory for the entire working class and its allies.
 
 
Related articles:
Goodyear recruits scabs; strikers call solidarity rallies  
 
 
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