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14 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 27/2003
J ob security prevailed as members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) ratified a three-year master agreement with Goodyear Tire and Rubber at 14 US plants. The contract, pieced together after five months of difficult bargaining aimed at keeping the US rubber company solvent, gives nearly all 20,000 unionised US Goodyear workers job security, and grants the ICEM-affiliated USWA unprecedented language regarding company decision making including a seat on Goodyear's board of directors.
"Given the blatant abandonment of American manufacturing by global corporations in recent years - 2.7 million jobs in the last 30 months - the job security provisions in this contract are an achievement that mark a whole new era of labour-management relations in the tyre and rubber industry," stated USWA President Leo Gerard.
To relieve the company's financial burden (it had posted losses of US$1.3 billion over the past two years, US$237 million coming in the first two quarters of this year), Goodyear sought to substantially reduce North American production by closing several plants and downsizing others. This production was scheduled to shift to non-US tyre plants with capital investment aimed at non-US and non-union facilities. In addition, Goodyear was looking for USWA members and its 22,000 retirees to make major wage and benefit concessions.
"We made it clear that, for there to be a contract, our plants would stay open and capital expenditures would be made to keep them globally competitive," said USWA Executive Vice President John Sellers, who heads the USWA's Rubber/Plastic Industry Council. The US union secured "Protected Plant" status for 12 of the 14 plants, with one (Tyler, Texas) having "partial-Protected Plant" status meaning it must meet certain goals to obtain protected status. Such designations ensure the plants will remain open for the term of the contract and that these operations be given "meaningful and significant first consideration and preference" for all new products introduced in North America.
Workers at the one operation without "Protected Plant" status, Huntsville, Alabama, will be entitled to preferential hiring at a nearby plant in Gadsden, Alabama, in the event their site is closed. Goodyear has agreed to transfer the production of one million tyres per year to unionised Gadsden from non-USWA plants if Huntsville goes down.
Import of Goodyear tyres to the US is restricted in the new labour agreement, as is the right of the company to transfer production. Excessive layers of Goodyear management both at headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and at tyre plants will be made redundant, and USWA members will now be empowered to make critical decisions in the production process. The use of outside contractors will be dramatically reduced.
The USWA seat on Goodyear's board is a first in the tyre and rubber industry. In addition, the union negotiated a debt-restructuring program for the firm to reduce financial obligations and refinance debt within specific time frames. And the USWA contract places limits on executive compensation both in base salaries and rewarding stock options.
Although the contract contains a three-year freeze on wages, workers will receive quarterly cost-of-living adjustments between US$.15 to $.25 per hour. USWA members will now pay only modest out-of-pocket costs on their health care coverage, US$3/week for single workers and US$9/week for family, while retirees will continue to receive full company-paid health benefits for the first 15 months of the agreement.
The US Goodyear plants are comprised of three former Kelly-Springfield tyre facilities, two Dunlop plants (joint venture with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries), and nine original Goodyear plants. For the first time, all plants will fall under a common expiration, 22 July 2006. The USWA has a unique ratification process in its Goodyear network in which a majority of workers must approve the contract, and at least eight of the 14 plants must ratify in individual plant-site voting. Last week's ratification came by better than a two-to-one worker count, and 13 of the 14 plants approved the agreement.
The USWA heads up the ICEM's Global Network of Goodyear Workers, which includes some 40,000 unionised workers at 47 plants in 24 countries. The USWA now begins contract talks with Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodrich and Groupe Michelin in the US.
"Given the blatant abandonment of American manufacturing by global corporations in recent years - 2.7 million jobs in the last 30 months - the job security provisions in this contract are an achievement that mark a whole new era of labour-management relations in the tyre and rubber industry," stated USWA President Leo Gerard.
To relieve the company's financial burden (it had posted losses of US$1.3 billion over the past two years, US$237 million coming in the first two quarters of this year), Goodyear sought to substantially reduce North American production by closing several plants and downsizing others. This production was scheduled to shift to non-US tyre plants with capital investment aimed at non-US and non-union facilities. In addition, Goodyear was looking for USWA members and its 22,000 retirees to make major wage and benefit concessions.
"We made it clear that, for there to be a contract, our plants would stay open and capital expenditures would be made to keep them globally competitive," said USWA Executive Vice President John Sellers, who heads the USWA's Rubber/Plastic Industry Council. The US union secured "Protected Plant" status for 12 of the 14 plants, with one (Tyler, Texas) having "partial-Protected Plant" status meaning it must meet certain goals to obtain protected status. Such designations ensure the plants will remain open for the term of the contract and that these operations be given "meaningful and significant first consideration and preference" for all new products introduced in North America.
Workers at the one operation without "Protected Plant" status, Huntsville, Alabama, will be entitled to preferential hiring at a nearby plant in Gadsden, Alabama, in the event their site is closed. Goodyear has agreed to transfer the production of one million tyres per year to unionised Gadsden from non-USWA plants if Huntsville goes down.
Import of Goodyear tyres to the US is restricted in the new labour agreement, as is the right of the company to transfer production. Excessive layers of Goodyear management both at headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and at tyre plants will be made redundant, and USWA members will now be empowered to make critical decisions in the production process. The use of outside contractors will be dramatically reduced.
The USWA seat on Goodyear's board is a first in the tyre and rubber industry. In addition, the union negotiated a debt-restructuring program for the firm to reduce financial obligations and refinance debt within specific time frames. And the USWA contract places limits on executive compensation both in base salaries and rewarding stock options.
Although the contract contains a three-year freeze on wages, workers will receive quarterly cost-of-living adjustments between US$.15 to $.25 per hour. USWA members will now pay only modest out-of-pocket costs on their health care coverage, US$3/week for single workers and US$9/week for family, while retirees will continue to receive full company-paid health benefits for the first 15 months of the agreement.
The US Goodyear plants are comprised of three former Kelly-Springfield tyre facilities, two Dunlop plants (joint venture with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries), and nine original Goodyear plants. For the first time, all plants will fall under a common expiration, 22 July 2006. The USWA has a unique ratification process in its Goodyear network in which a majority of workers must approve the contract, and at least eight of the 14 plants must ratify in individual plant-site voting. Last week's ratification came by better than a two-to-one worker count, and 13 of the 14 plants approved the agreement.
The USWA heads up the ICEM's Global Network of Goodyear Workers, which includes some 40,000 unionised workers at 47 plants in 24 countries. The USWA now begins contract talks with Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodrich and Groupe Michelin in the US.