20 December, 2011While thousands joined the United Steelworkers (USW) on December 17 at a solidarity rally to support 1,051 locked-out members at Cooper Tire and Rubber since November 28, workers at other Cooper Tire facilities in Europe showed their support.
USA: At the rally in Findlay, USW Secretary Treasurer Stan Johnson, who heads the USW's tire industry sector bargaining, said Nezavisnost, the Serbian union which represents workers at Cooper's recently purchased tire plant in Krusevac, Serbia, has demanded that the company end the lockout and pledged support and resources to bring that about.
In the United Kingdom Unite the Union, representing workers at Cooper's manufacturing plant in Melksham, U.K. has distributed USW-provided literature to its members.
Unite members are sending messages of support and solidarity to United Steelworkers in Ohio. Unite will also be placing advertisements of support in US newspapers.
Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: "Manufacturing is now globalised and what happens in one country can happen in another. That's why Unite and our members at Cooper Tire are standing up for our US brothers and sisters."
The United Steelworkers union is Unite's partner union in the transatlantic union alliance Workers Uniting.
Other Cooper Tire facilities are in Mexico, Corporacion de Occidente, which is 58 per cent owned by Cooper Tire, employs 900 workers and produces 14,000 tyres per day, 70 per cent of which are exported, and in China.
USW has created a web page dedicated to the struggle at Cooper Tire, with campaign and video information, at http://stopcoopertire.usw.org/.