Goodyear to take production break at Fayetteville plant

ERJ staff report (TB)

Akron, Ohio -- Goodyear will halt production at its Fayetteville, North Carolina, factory between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2, marking the fifth week production has been stopped there this year.

Daryl Jackson, president of United Steelworkers Local 959, told a local newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer, that the union knew the shut down was coming. A spokesman for the plant, which employs about 3000 people, said production will stop at 7 a.m. on Dec. 24 and resume at 7 a.m. on Jan 2.

Because employees will be paid for the Christmas and New Year´s Day holidays, they won't be off the clock long enough to qualify for unemployment claims, Mr. Jackson added, noting that during previous production halts at the plant this year workers were able to collect unemployment.

He told the newspaper that if there is money in the USW's “sub-pay” trust fund, which is contracted between Goodyear and the union, it will be made available to workers.

Goodyear, along with Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS), applied recently for up to $30 million in grants each over 10 years to maintain employment and upgrade equipment at the tire makers' factories in North Carolina. Both companies applied for the grants from the North Carolina Department of Commerce under the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund law approved in September 2007.

A Goodyear spokeswoman confirmed that the four prior weeks of production halts at the Fayetteville plant this year were to bring inventory in line with demand.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)