Goodyear, on Skids, to Fire 1,100 Workers

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which is losing its 64-year grip on the title as the world’s No. 1 tire maker, said today it plans to cut 1,100 jobs and take a $35-million quarterly charge as it implements a major restructuring plan.

The restructuring, announced in April, would include Goodyear’s tire business and perhaps other North American operations.

Goodyear Chairman Tom Barrett said the tire division’s restructuring “complements company strategy to better serve a changing marketplace and improve the cost effectiveness of wholesale and retail marketing.”

The Akron-based company said that because of competitive pressures in the tire industry and the $35-million charge, it expects to report a second-quarter loss of $10 million. Goodyear last reported a quarterly loss in the first period of 1986, largely because of a write-off.

Goodyear also said that 1,100 of its 50,000 North American workers will be laid off as five regional operations are eliminated.

The 92-year-old company has seen its earnings slide over the last few years as foreign rivals stepped up their investments in tire making.

A lingering sluggishness in the U.S. auto market is also denting Goodyear’s earnings.

Goodyear is still the world’s largest rubber manufacturer, but its world market share in tire making has been eroded by archrival French tire company Michelin Group.

Michelin is vying for the title as the world’s largest tire maker. Last year it snapped up Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co., the second-largest tire maker in the United States, for $690 million. The purchase was the latest in a wave of acquisitions and restructurings to hit the tire companies centered around Akron.

In 1988, Japan’s Bridgestone Corp. bought Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., previously the No. 2 U.S. tire maker, for $2.6 billion.

Only Goodyear, the nation’s biggest tire producer, has avoided a takeover. But it had to pay a high price for its independence--a $3.6-billion debt load, most of which was caused by a major stock buyback plan adopted after a 1986 raid by Anglo-French investor Sir James Goldsmith.