USW, Goodyear Reach Tentative AgreementFor Immediate Release December 22, 2006
(Pittsburgh, PA) -- The United Steelworkers (USW) and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company today reached tentative agreement on a new three year contract that the union said “secures retiree health care benefits and dramatically increases Goodyear’s investments in union facilities.”
“This agreement validates the solidarity of our members and their families, who wouldn’t allow the company to walk away from obligations earned through a lifetime of hard work and loyalty,” said USW President Leo W. Gerard.
“We owe a debt of gratitude,” he added, “to the entire labor and activist communities, which rose with unprecedented solidarity to challenge Goodyear’s assault on our members.”
“By securing solid medical and drug benefits for current members and retirees in the midst of today’s health care crisis,” said Thomas Conway, USW Vice President and the Chair of the union’s Goodyear negotiations, “our bargaining committee was able to drive the proverbial wolf away from the door for tens of thousands of retirees and thousands more workers who are nearing retirement.”
The Tentative Agreement was endorsed by the USW’s Goodyear Policy Committee, made up of local union leaders from the company’s master contract facilities throughout the U.S. Members at these locations will vote at ratification meetings in their communities on December 28.
Although details of the tentative agreement will not be released until USW members at Goodyear have voted in a ratification election scheduled for next week, the union said that the agreement addresses three crucial areas of concern by:
Establishing an innovative company-financed trust of more than $1 billion that will secure medical and prescription drug benefits for current and future retirees;
Enhancing the ability of USW-represented plants to meet the challenges of global competition by having Goodyear triple its capital investments to at least $550 million in those plants; and,
Maintaining affordable, high quality medical and prescription drug coverage for active members and retirees.
In addition, the tentative agreement requires Goodyear to rescind its demand for immediate closure of its Tyler, Texas plant, and instead provides for a one-year period of transition during which workers will have the opportunity to take advantage of sizeable retirement buyouts.
The Tyler plant came out of the 2003 negotiation as the one unprotected facility, but despite determined efforts by international and local union leaders and strong support from the community, plant security could not be won beyond the end of 2007.
“Though we’re not entirely happy with the outcome at Tyler,” Conway said, “we were able to ensure that as long as Goodyear stays in the market for the tires built at Tyler, those tires will have to be produced at USW-represented plants in the U.S. The company simply won’t be able to outsource that work or service this market segment with imports from China or anywhere other than a USW facility.”
“What we achieved would never have been possible if we hadn’t struck.” said Ron Hoover, USW Executive Vice President
Negotiations between the USW and Goodyear began in June of this year. With a contract expiration date of July 22, 2006 approaching, a day-to-day extension agreement was reached that gave both parties the option of terminating the agreement upon delivering 72-hour notice. Lack of progress in bargaining talks forced the USW to delivered notice on October 2 and 15,000 USW members in 16 plants throughout North America struck on October 5.
The ratification vote will be taken following informational meetings at each location. A majority of the majority principle applies meaning that a majority of the locals as well as a majority of the overall membership must vote to accept the Tentative Agreement as the new contract.
The USW represents more than 850,000 members in the U.S. and Canada. Some 70,000 are employed in the tire, rubber and plastics industry.
CONTACT: Wayne Ranick (412) 562-2444
2 comments:
On behalf of 15,000 brave workers who courageously battled to last one day longer that the company, their families and more than 30,000 Goodyear retirees and surviving spouses, allow me to thank everybody who contributed to this victory.
We thank the entire labor movement, activist communities and progressive groups from all over North America for its unprecedented solidarity and acknowledge the efforts of fair-minded representatives of the media and financial communities, who took the time to understand the critical issues in this conflict.
As we said from the beginning, this contract campaign went far beyond a labor-management dispute. It was a battle to make a company live up to its commitments to past and current employees, and to secure a future for manufacturing in North America.
The support we received from the communities where our plants are located was extraordinary and included efforts by church and community groups as well as public officials, ordinary citizens and local businesses.
We are happy to provide you with some of the highlights from the Tentative Agreement that our bargaining reached with their counterparts at Goodyear Tire and Rubber late today. While no settlement is ever perfect, we all deserve congratulations in successfully working together to resolve the critical issues that confronted us when the bargaining process began.
Thank you again.
Leo W. Gerard
International President, United Steelworkers
This sort of thing makes on proud to be a steelworker (even though retired). I think I speak for all those of SOAR 11-3 (St. Louis) whom participated in activities including not buying products made by scabs.
It is good the steelworkers taking hard line with folks wishing to cut benefits for retirees. garyro
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