USW ratifies 3-year pacts at Firestone-Bridgestone sites

The United Steelworkers (USW) announced April 26 that new agreements covering 5,200 members at eight Bridgestone-Firestone (BFS) have been ratified. Some 52 percent of the membership covered by the master contract voted to accept the tentative agreement which was reached on April 4, while separate pacts at Warren County, Tenn., and Bloomington, Ill., passed by 3:2 and 3:1 margins, respectively.

The master contract covers workers at four tire manufacturing sites in Akron, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; LaVergne, Tenn.; and Oklahoma City, Okla.; a Firestone tube plant in Russellville, Ark.; and a Firestone air spring plant in Noblesville, Ind.

“The new contracts fall in line with the pattern agreements negotiated at BFGoodrich/Michelin and Goodyear,” said USW executive vice president Ron Hoover. “Quality health care coverage was maintained for active members and retirees alike, cost-of-living allowances were preserved and pension benefits were improved.”

The three-year contract will run through July 18, 2009 and provide closure protection to the plants in Warren County, Des Moines and Lavergne as well as $100 million in investments. Note that the LaVergne, Tenn., plant will become a protected facility if, and when, it adopts an incentive pay system. It would then become eligible to receive capital investments. Current employees will receive wage-rate protection and the contracts guarantee job protection of at least 90 percent of established levels.

The master contract includes workers in Oklahoma City, where BFS halted tire production at the end of 2006. Provisions in the new deal include a $23 million plant-closure package in addition to contractual benefits and life insurance coverage.

The USW's preservation of COLA – a benefit that was gained 30 years ago – played a large role in the ability of the union to protect retiree benefits. The active employees agreed to divert the first $1 of a COLA to help defray retiree health care costs.

“Otherwise, the company would have instituted premium costs that would have been devastating to retired members,” said Hoover.

In June 2006, the USW named BFGoodrich as the industry's target company. A new contract was ratified with the Michelin subsidiary in August 2006. The USW and Goodyear reached a new agreement in January 2007 only after many months of intensive negotiations and an 86-day strike. By targeting a company in master contract negotiations and setting a pattern agreement for the rest of the industry to follow, no company is able to achieve an unfair advantage when it comes to the cost of labor.

The USW represents some 70,000 members in the tire, rubber and plastics industry, and 850,000 overall in the U.S. and Canada.