Goodyear workers 'will do everything' to defend Fulda site

Hanover, Germany – Goodyear workers are to gather en masse outside the company's tire plant in Fulda, Germany, in protest at plans for major cutbacks at the facility.

Up to 1,000 Goodyear workers will meet outside the main entrance of the tire manufacturing facility on 3 July, the IGBCE union said in a German-language statement supplied to ERJ.

'Colleagues from other Goodyear locations as well as federal, state and local politicians are also invited to the meeting, initiated by the works council,' the union stated.

'We don't put up with that [the planned job cuts],' insisted Anne Weinschenk, IGBCE's head for the Central Hesse district.

Capacity utilisation of the plant “is good”, said Weinschenk, adding that Goodyear was ‘compensating for management errors at the expense of employees.’

“Laying off well-trained employees now is a mistake that damages the site. We will do everything to prevent that," the union official emphasised.

Goodyear last month announced plans to cut more than half of the jobs at the plant, impacting 375 employees and 175 contracted positions.

The tire maker said the cuts were necessary to "decrease high-cost capacity and optimise use of other plants” in EMEA.

The proposal would reduce the number of tire SKUs produced in Fulda by around 450, about 200 of which are to be transferred to other EMEA plants.

The Akron-based tire maker aims to complete the rationalisation measures by the end of 2024, at an estimated cost of between $105 million and $115 million.

This is the second round of job cuts at the Fulda factory in the past four years.

In 2019, Goodyear cut a total of 1,100 jobs across two of its German production sites: in Hanau and Fulda.