Goodyear, Steelworkers begin contract talks

AKRON, Ohio - With the backdrop of an uncertain economy, shrinking unions and company cost-cutting, Goodyear and the Steelworkers union are negotiating a new national contract covering 8,000 tire workers at six plants.

The first round of talks in Cincinnati ended Thursday and recessed.

With the contract between the Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and United Steelworkers of America expiring July 27, both sides have plenty of time and indicated the talks would be in recess until June while they evaluate each other’s opening positions.

There’s been no talk of a strike, and it wasn’t clear whether the union would use the talks as a pattern to set the stage for negotiations during the summer with tiremakers Bridgestone-Firestone and Michelin-BFGoodrich. The company contracts expire the same day.

Steelworkers went on strike against Goodyear for three months in 2006.

The last time the national contract for Goodyear’s union work force expired in 2009, the nation was struggling to rebound from the recession and unemployment was 9.4percent. Goodyear lost $375 million that year.

The U.S. unemployment rate in March fell to a four year low of 7.6 percent. At the same time, the nation’s union movement has seen its nationwide membership shrink to its lowest levels since at least the 1930s - 6.6 percent in the private sector.

Goodyear earned $183 million last year, aggressively pushing high-end tires and working to control costs.

The tire industry has been aided by a revived American auto industry, which had its best performance in five years in 2012.

The union signaled that it would highlight Goodyear’s improving situation, particularly in its core North American market, in the talks.

“Overall, the industry is like the economy - it’s limping along, although Goodyear North American Tire is doing much better due in part to work we have done in the past,” Steelworkers international vice president Tom Conway said in an e-mail Friday.

“The USW recognizes that fact, and we will raise it with the company. The economy as a whole provides a somewhat better environment than it was during the 2009 talks when we were still fully in the grips of a recession.”