The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.18           May 5, 1997 
 
 
12,500 Workers Strike Goodyear Tires  

BY BETSY FARLEY
GADSDEN, Alabama - On Saturday, April 19, at 11 p.m., 1,800 union workers walked off the job here at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in the first officially sanctioned contract strike since an industry-wide walkout that lasted 140 days in 1976. The strikers, organized by the United Steelworkers of America, are joined by workers at eight other Goodyear plants across the country in Akron, St. Mary's, and Maryville, Ohio; Union City, Tennessee; Danville, Virginia; Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Topeka, Kansas.

Several of the workers on the picket line Monday evening wore black T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of a cobra and the slogan "If Provoked I Will Strike. Don't Tread on Me! Local 12, United Steelworkers of America."

"We were prepared for this," explained Donald Hall, a bead builder with 32 years in the plant. "For a long time every Friday was `black shirt day' and everybody wore them to show the strength of the union."

Foy Heath, who works as a general operator in the plant agreed. "Not one union person has crossed and I don't think anyone will," he said. The workers struck the tire giant over wages and benefits, but the union also wants a common expiration date for contracts covering all Goodyear's union employees. In addition to the 12,500 strikers, another 8,000 workers at other Goodyear locations are currently working under different contracts, and other plants are nonunion. The largest tire manufacturer in North America, Goodyear employs about 90,000 people worldwide.

"The company has no intention of mortgaging its future by agreeing to a contract that would widen a contractual disadvantage with its competitors," stated John Perduyn, Goodyear's vice president of public affairs, in a statement released after the strike began.

Strikers on the picket line here say the company wants the same type of contract that Bridgestone/Firestone got. Workers at both companies were originally organized by the United Rubber Workers (URW). Some 4,200 workers struck Bridgestone/Firestone for 10 months in a labor battle that ended in May 1995, when the URW officialdom ordered the strikers to make an "unconditional offer to return to work." Workers returning to the plants had their wages slashed from an average of $17 an hour to an average of $12 an hour, and had to work "flexible" 12 hour shifts.

The URW was then merged into the USWA in June, 1996. The USWA officials focused their energies on a consumer boycott and corporate campaign against the company until a tentative agreement was reached. A contract was finally signed at Bridgestone/Firestone in December 1996 that included implementation of a seven-day, 12-hour rotating shift schedule and the introduction of a two-tier wage scale with new hires working at 70 percent of base pay for the first three years.

"We've been working the 12-hour shifts for some time," said Hall, "and I'd like to see the percentage of people who have had heart attacks, nerve problems, stress, knee and back problems because of it." The average age of the Gadsden workforce is 48 years old, according to another striker.

Fayetteville workers join the strike
Although they are covered by a separate agreement, 2,300 workers at Kelly Springfield tire manufacturer in Fayetteville, North Carolina, struck the plant April 22. Goodyear owns Kelly Springfield, which also has tire plants in Freeport, Illinois, and Tyler, Texas. The union contract at the Fayetteville plant expired in September 1996. Workers rejected two proposals by wide margins, and continued to work under the old contract's terms as talks continued.

Hall said workers at the Gadsden plant have been supporting the steelworkers on strike against Wheeling- Pittsburgh. "We've had collections at our plant. We need to do what they did in Poland a few years back, when all the workers in the country just sat down. That would make our unions stronger again."

Negotiations between the company and union continued in Cincinnati on April 22, although the local union presidents have gone home. They will return to the negotiations if a tentative settlement appears close.

Betsy Farley is a member of USWA Local 12014 in Birmingham, Alabama.

BY MIKE FITZSIMMONS AND BRAD DOWNS

AKRON, Ohio - The United Steelworkers of America Local 2 hall overlooks the sprawling complex of Goodyear production, research, and office buildings here.

The hall was a flurry of discussions on April 22, the third day of the strike. Union members talked about the contract negotiations taking place in Cincinnati and about the assaults against union pickets by Goodyear management personnel crossing the picket lines.

Carl Leatherman, the Skilled Trades Chairman of Local 2, said that on Monday, April 21, members of the union parked their cars at the gates of the plant to help stop management from entering. On both Monday and Tuesday, hostile nonunion Goodyear employees threatened and hit union pickets with their vehicles. Ed Smith, a Local 2 member hit by one of the vehicles, said the pickets filed reports with the Akron City and Goodyear police and would demand an end to this intimidation.

Frank Bell, a Local 2 member and tire builder for 35 years, said the local was trying to get union contractors working on projects in the complex to honor the picket lines. Leatherman added that the union electricians had promised not to cross.

According to Bell, "Goodyear officials are doubling their salaries and asking us to cut ours. They want to take away just like Bridgestone/Firestone did." On the picket line, Bill Wagner, a racing tire builder for 30 years, said another important issue was the unions demand for one contract expirations date in common with all the Goodyear plants. "We would have a stronger, more united union," he added.

Mike Fitzsimmons is a member of United Auto Workers Local 2015 and Brad Downs is a member of UAW Local 1005, both in Cleveland, Ohio.

BY JIM ROGERS

DANVILLE, Virginia - USWA Local 831 members here walked out after one hour of the midnight shift Sunday night April 20 and set up pickets in front of the Goodyear plant.

There are 1,850 workers at the plant. The workers in the local voted overwhelmingly to strike with only 17 voting against. So far only one has crossed the picket line.

Fifteen workers staffed the picket line on Tuesday morning. Most cars that passed honked their support for the strikers. Striking worker Henry Daniel said the main issues in the strike are the company's attempt to institute continuous operations throughout the whole plant, increase the cost of benefits, lower pay for new hires for three years, and go from a three-year to a six-year contract. "Every three years at contract time we generally have to strike for a day or two to get a good contract, but this one looks like it will be longer. We won't go back until we get what we want," Daniel said.

Workers said they had gotten a pledge of support from a union local in Roanoke, Virginia, at a Yokohama tire plant.

Jim Rogers and Lisa Potash are members of Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 294-T in Eden, North Carolina.  
 
 
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