Three years ago, workers at Goodyear tire plants voluntarily agreed to a wage and benefit freeze to help out the financially ailing company. Goodyear management was so grateful, it said the United Steelworkers (USW), the union that represents the workers, was its partner.
Now Goodyear is making a profit. In fact, workers’ givebacks—which also included job consolidations for increased productivity and the closure of one plant—enabled the company’s stock to rebound from $4 per share in 2003 to more than $16 today.
But instead of keeping the promises it made to workers when times were bad—like keeping jobs in the United States in return for wage freezes—the company now is slapping those same workers in the face.
Nearly 16,000 workers have been on strike since October at Goodyear plants across the nation. They went out on the picket line after Goodyear announced the closing of its Tyler, Texas, plant, affecting 1,110 workers. The Tyler plant is the company’s third U.S. plant to shut down in four years. At the same time, the giant tire maker is increasing tire imports from factories in countries such as China that pay workers 42 cents an hour. In the past two years alone, Goodyear has invested $ 18 million in a plant in China and is increasing production there to 5.3 million tires a year.
Says Dave Prentice, benefits representative and political coordinator for USW Local 2 in Akron, Ohio:
We’ve drawn a line in the sand. When the top officers [at Goodyear] share $ 38 million in bonuses at the expense of the people who generated the profit, that may be legal, but it’s immoral.
And while Goodyear is demanding a 50 percent wage cut for new hires, CEO Robert Keegan last year pocketed salary and stock options worth more than $7 million. Goodyear also wants to wash its hands of its retiree health care obligations by moving them to a trust fund the company would walk away from after it was established—without sufficiently funding it to make it viable for the long term.
About a month ago, Goodyear hired replacement workers to make tires in the struck plants. In another insult to workers, management borrowed $ 1 billion to fight the strike and another $ 1 billion in unsecured notes—and Wall Street gobbled them up, in what some union analysts say is a cynical effort at union-busting.
Once upon a time, many of us white-collar workers didn’t think we needed to worry about manufacturing jobs going overseas. After all, high-tech jobs were the wave of the future, right? Well, these "new economy" jobs may be part of the wave, but that wave is washing up U.S. jobs on other shores—manufacturing, high-tech and a whole lot more.
That’s why Goodyear workers’ struggle is a struggle that involves us all.
As the holidays approach, striking Goodyear workers need our help. It’s getting harder for these families to pay the mortgage or rent. And to make it all worse, their health benefits expire Jan. 3.
Last month, while running for the U.S. Senate, Jim Webb walked the picket line with Goodyear workers in Danville, Va. (When he was governor of Virginia, soon-to-be-former Sen. George Allen called those same workers’ actions "moronic" when they struck in the 1990s.)
Webb stood by the striking workers, and so can we.
The USW is giving striking Goodyear workers a holiday bonus of $ 100 from its strike fund. Canadian unions have joined in sympathy strikes and are asking consumers not to buy Goodyear tires until the strike is settled fairly.
Through the AFL-CIO Working Families Network, you can contribute to the USW Strike Fund. Make a generous donation to workers. Every penny of your donation will go to striking USW families.
And on Saturday, join us for a Dec. 16 Day of Action. We’ll be leafleting at more than 120 Goodyear stores and distributors across the country to let customers know Goodyear is trying to ship jobs overseas. Click here to find a location near you.
And just for fun, cast your vote in the sixth annual online Grinch of the Year contest to determine the national figure who does the most harm to working families. Goodyear is a top candidate. The Solidarity at Goodyear site has details on the contest.
Elections may be over, but there’s lots we can do to stay involved. And backing up workers’ struggle for U.S. jobs that maintain America’s middle class is another way to cast a vote for a progressive future.