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Contract vote begins today in Union City

Contract vote begins today in Union City

Posted: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:09 pm
By: Donna Ryder Messenger Associate Editor

By DONNA RYDER
Messenger Associate Editor
Members of United Steel-workers Local 878 will make their opinions known about the four-year tentative national contract agreement between the union and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. during ratification votes this week.
Starting with two sessions today, active union members will have the opportunity to vote for or against the contract.
Voting sessions will be held at the National Guard armory on Reelfoot Avenue in Union City. Today’s sessions will be held at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Additional sessions will be Wednesday at 7 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. Members should bring their clock cards and photo IDs.
Local 878 recording secretary Johnny Dyer said Union City’s plant will be the first of Goodyear’s plants to vote on the tentative contract.
Other plants covered include Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Gadsden, Ala.; and Topeka, Kan. Dyer said he could not release any details of the contract, which covers about 10,300 steelworkers at the seven Goodyear plants in the United States.
Talks for the new contract began June 8 in Cincinnati. The previous three-year contract, which was set to expire July 18, was extended twice during the negotiation process. Negotiators finalized the contract at the end of August.
Union City’s plant currently faces the threat of closure should the economy not pick up.
As agreed upon by local union members during a recent buyout plan presented to them by Goodyear, the Union City plant could be closed in the third phase of the three-phase plan.
On that front, things are beginning to look up at the local plant. According to Goodyear’s latest publication of “UC Today,” Goodyear Union City plans to recall laid-off associates in response to the plant’s increased production demands.
Associate Editor Donna Ryder can be contacted by e-mail at dryder@ucmessenger.com.
Published in The Messenger 9.8.09