Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Co., North America’s largest tyre maker, gave its biggest labour union a new contract offer after three days of non-stop negotiations, Bloomberg News reported, adding that union leaders were reviewing the proposal before talks resume.
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“We gave them a new offer yesterday,” Goodyear spokesman Chuck Sinclair told the news agency, without elaborating on the proposal.
Both sides agreed to suspend bargaining on Sunday after talks that continued during the weekend, Bloomberg News said.
“The process is still ongoing, and the committees are still meeting and evaluating things,” Wayne Ranick, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America, told the news agency. The union represents 16,000 active workers and another 3,000 who are on indefinite layoff at 14 Goodyear factories in the United States, the report noted.
Bloomberg News said Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear and the union bargained past a Friday deadline set by the company.
Contract talks between the tyre maker and the United Steelworkers began in March, subsequently broke off and restarted in Cincinnati on August 6 after a month’s hiatus, the report said, noting that the company is seeking to reduce expenses after $US1.31 billion in losses the past two years and declining revenue in North America, its biggest market.
“These negotiations involved more complex issues than either side has experienced in the past,” the union reportedly said in an alert posted on its website, adding: “This requires more time and focused attention to the details in these proposals.”
