4,700 Strike Firestone in 6 States : Goodyear Could Face Walkout on Tuesday
About 4,700 United Rubber Workers members struck Firestone Inc. plants in six states Sunday, and another 15,000 union members are poised to strike Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. at noon Tuesday.
The Firestone employees walked out after negotiators in Cleveland failed to reach an agreement prior to a 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline.
“There are no talks scheduled at this point and there is no indication of when new talks could occur,” Firestone spokesman Jim Strandberg said Sunday.
The disabled Firestone facilities are in Akron, Ohio; Noblesville, Ind.; Des Moines, Iowa; Decatur, Ill.; Russellville, Ark., and Oklahoma City. The Des Moines, Decatur and Oklahoma City plants make tires, the Noblesville plant makes molded rubber products and the Russellville plant makes inner tubes.
In Des Moines, about 20 Firestone employees picketed the plant’s five gates Sunday afternoon even though no work shifts were scheduled until 11 p.m., said Bill Winslow, a production worker and picket captain.
“There won’t be any vulgar language, no open drinking, no harassing the people who want to cross the picket line, no throwing things,” Winslow said. “We’ve got a good image and we want to keep it. Firestone has already got their image, don’t they?”
Secret Ballot
At Firestone’s tire plant in Oklahoma City, about 10 workers were on a picket line, said Don Adams, vice president of Local 998.
As the Firestone strike began, a vote Sunday by a local in Danville, Va., threatened to produce an even larger nationwide strike Tuesday against Goodyear.
The Goodyear pact was negotiated as an agreement to serve as a pattern for other rubber companies. But Goodyear’s 15,000 URW members rejected the tentative contract by a 3-1 ratio on May 1.
Fewer than half of the 1,668 members of Local 831 turned out for the secret ballot Sunday on whether to take another look at the proposal. The vote was 476-339 against reconsidering, union officials said.
“If nothing changes, if the union and the company don’t get back together at 12 o’clock Tuesday, high noon, there will be a strike,” said Linwood Saunders, president of the local.
Six of the 11 Goodyear locals approved the pact, but did not represent a majority of the Goodyear membership in the URW. Under URW bylaws, ratification must be made by a majority of the locals representing a majority of the membership.
URW President Milan Stone said Firestone’s latest proposal did not match the pattern settlement.
Proposal Defended
“(Firestone) did not present us with anywhere near a pension offer that was negotiated (with Goodyear). They did not present to us the cost of living allowance provisions Goodyear granted and there was no provision in there for fully paid hospital insurance,” Stone said.
