Union Workers Accept Goodyear Buyout

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is a step closer to closing its 90 year old Gadsden plant.

“ Goodyear can confirm that our tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers to close our Gadsden, Alabama tire plant has been approved by the membership of the local union.This move will position Goodyear to more cost effectively produce the premium tires consumers demand and improve the competitiveness of our manufacturing footprint,” said company spokesperson Melissa Monaco.

Union workers voted 375 to 107 to accept the company’s offer, which offered lump sum buyouts based on each employee’s years of service.

Each worker will receive $3,750 per year of service, with minimum payments of $40,000 for employees with up to nine years of service, $55,000 for employees with 10-19 years of service, and $70,000 for employees with more than 20 years’ service.

The vote was posted on the door to the union hall of United Steelworkers Local 12. Some workers came by to check the vote, then shook their heads and left.

Goodyear needed the union vote because their current contract protected the plant from closure until 2022.

Since Governor Kay Ivey’s order on social distancing bans meetings of 10 or more people, the vote had to be conducted a few at a time. The presentation was made in the union hall auditorium, the actual voting in the hall’s rear parking lot.

The local union president says the workers showed a range of emotions.

“Depends on who you ask, some really devastated, some just looking to get on with their lives,” said Mickey Ray Williams, president of Local 12.

Williams says the union will assist the workers in finding other employment, possibly including a job fair.

The workers said on social media two weeks ago they were informed of plans to close. The company didn’t confirm it until an SEC filing became public last week.

WBRC FOX 6 NEWS

 

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