Nationwide Protest Will Target Goodyear for ‘Abandoning America’s Workers, Retirees and Communities’PITTSBURGH — The AFL-CIO will join the United Steelworkers (USW) in launching a nationwide Day of Action against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE:GT) “to protest Goodyear’s assault on the economic security and basic rights of working families and Steelworker members, as well as current and future retirees,” the USW and AFL-CIO announced today.
In a meeting in Washington today, the Federation’s Executive Council voted unanimously to:
- Discredit Goodyear’s abandonment of American manufacturing, workers, retirees and their communities;
- Join with Steelworker members on informational actions at stores selling Goodyear products;
- Condemn Goodyear’s assault on the health security of its workers and retirees as destructive to organized labor’s ongoing efforts to win accessible and affordable health care for all; and
- Encourage employers with whom affiliates have contracts, both private and public, to abandon the use of Goodyear tires as original or fleet equipment, until such time as Goodyear relents in its unconscionable demands and shameless hypocrisy and reaches a reasonable and equitable agreement with the United Steelworkers.
“Together, the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO will make sure the tire-buying public understands the real facts about Goodyear’s demands to abandon America’s workers, retirees and communities,” added USW President Leo W. Gerard.
Goodyear forced 15,000 USW members in 16 plants in North America out on strike October 5. Despite innovations delivered by the union and concessions taken by its members and retirees in the 2003 contract that contributed to a billion-dollar turnaround in the company’s bottom line since 2002, Goodyear continued to insist on additional plant closings and more concessions in this round of bargaining.
The AFL-CIO is the nation’s largest umbrella organization of unions, representing 10 million working men and women nationwide. The USW is the largest industrial union in North America, representing more than 850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Some 70,000 are employed in the tire, rubber and plastics industry.
http://www.fightbackamerica.net/default.asp
United Steelworkers AFL-CIO.CLC
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