Bridgestone Corp.’s Firestone unit has asked its largest union, the United Steelworkers of America, for major wage and benefit concessions, Reuters reported, citing a newsletter on the union’s website.
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In the letter, the union also reportedly said the company last week indicated it “cannot and will not follow a pattern agreement” like the one agreed to in August by Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Co.
A Firestone spokesman declined to comment to Reuters on contract specifics, saying the company will not negotiate in the media.
“We’re going to respect the process. We’re going to talk, exchange information at the table with the leadership of the United Steelworkers. And that’s where we think it ought to stay,” Dan MacDonald, a spokesman for Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc., told the news agency, which noted that about 6,000 workers at eight plants in Tennessee, Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Arkansas are covered under the contract, which expired on April 23 but has been extended on a day-to-day basis since then.
Preliminary talks began on March 14 but were postponed for several months while the Steelworkers completed negotiations with Goodyear, which has been struggling financially and lost $1.1 billion in 2002, Reuters added.
The Goodyear agreement, which was ratified early in September, gave the Steelworkers a seat on Goodyear’s board, job security for workers at most of its unionised plants and profit sharing in return for a wage freeze and increased worker payments for health care, Reuters said.
According to a newsletter for the USWA’s Bridgestone Firestone Council, Firestone seeks the right to hire up to 10% of the work force as temporary employees with reduced wages and no benefits, Reuters said, adding that the company’s proposal would include mandatory overtime and eliminate cost-of-living increases at some locations and guaranteed minimum holidays while pensions would be frozen.
Also, new employees would not be eligible for retired workers’ medical benefits, drug contributions would be increased and deductibles for co-pays for health care also would be increased, the report added.
Reuters said that traditionally, when the Steelworkers have reached a contract agreement with its “target” company, it is then used as a template with the other two major US tyre producers.
Firestone was the target company in 2000, just after its large tyre recall and no work stoppage occurred but in 1994, when it was not a target, the company was hit with a two-year strike, the report noted.
About 80% of Firestone’s US manufacturing workforce are members of the Steelworkers union and the company has about 51,000 employees in the Americas, Reuters said.
Goodyear is the largest US tyre maker and its contract with the Steelworkers covers nearly 19,000 workers and 22,000 retirees, Reuters added.
