Ray was responding to an October 30 press release by the tire manufacturer that it will close the Tyler plant. The release, issued from corporate headquarters in Akron, Ohio, gave no timetable but received considerable press in Texas.

The response by strikers here has been to beef up their picket lines and strengthen their resolve.

“If Goodyear won’t negotiate a contract that we can live with, then we will be here to talk to whoever replaces them” Ray said.

“No Goodyear worker has crossed the picket line at this plant,” striker Joe Wyatt reported.

Some 15,000 workers at 16 Goodyear plants in the United States and Canada have been on strike since October 5 against company efforts to impose wage cuts of up to 40 percent, eliminate retiree medical benefits, and close factories in Alabama and Texas, including the one here.

Goodyear has been hiring temporary workers, and the talk on the picket line November 3 was of a busload that the early morning picket shift saw going into the plant. “A contractor named UNICO has been providing what they call ‘replacement workers,’” said Ray about the bosses’ strikebreaking efforts.

“The company was talking about cutting our benefits,” Travis Jasper, a Banbury machine operator with 36 years experience at the tire plant here, said as he walked the line. “They did that last contract, saying they needed the money to keep things going.” But, he added, “We weren’t going along with any of that this time.”

A dozen unionists keep a visible presence in front of the gate.

“See that semi driver,” said Robert Lemmons. “I just talked with him the other day and he told me a lot of these trailers are hauling scrap.” Lemons has worked in shipping at the plant for 16 years. “If they do carry out tires, the driver told me, the weight is around 22,000 pounds, about half a full load,” he said, joking about how slow the truck was going.

Meanwhile, much-needed solidarity has continued to come in from throughout eastern Texas. Two tents across from the picket line where workers stop by to discuss the latest strike news or to help spell those on regular picket duty are also filling with solidarity drop-off donations. As Militant reporters talked with strikers, a worker pulled up with a van loaded to the roof with cartons of potato chips.

Amanda Ulman contributed to this article.
 

Local members report that no union members have crossed the line. The company has several hundred management personnel as well as replacement workers hired through a local temporary agency doing some production.

“My dad worked here for 44 years,” said Joe Herbeck, who has worked at Goodyear for 11 years. “Now my mother has macular degeneration and is legally blind, and they want to take away her medical benefits.”

“We gave up a lot in our last contract to help the company turn things around,” said Mike Nowaki, a bias machine operator who has worked at the Tonawanda plant for 15 years. “Now they’ve had record sales, but they still want to take more. It’s just not right.”

Building tires eight to twelve hours a day is hard work, Micah Milewski said, but “all the company cares about is the production numbers. A lot of workers get injured on the job.” Milewski is a loader-receiver who has worked here for four years.

Support from the community is evident. Many drivers honk as they pass the picket line. Strikers have received donations of food and firewood. Auto workers and other steelworkers from the area have visited the picket lines.

Thomas Tannehill, a warehouse worker who offered his support, summed up the sentiments of many workers. “Somebody’s got to take a stand,” he said.
 

Strikers reported that on October 26 some 100 members of the Canadian Auto Workers attending a conference in Port Elgin boarded buses to join fellow USW strikers on their picket lines in Owen Sound.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home