Posted on 10/19/2002 1:29:09 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Goodyear's announcement Friday that it would build an automotive hose manufacturing plant in Mexico sent disappointment, though not shock, through the company's work force and Lincoln.
The new plant, expected to open next year, represents the next step in Goodyear's plan to shut down its hose production operation in Lincoln, which will cost more than 480 of its 1,430 jobs locally.
Lincoln plant manager Todd Turner characterized the announcement as moving forward on plans the company announced in January.
He said the decision was cemented earlier this month, when members of United Steelworkers Local 286 rejected contract changes that would have frozenwages and saved about 100 of the 480 jobs.
"We attempted to do something jointly to save at least part of the hose production in Lincoln," Turner said Friday. The proposal sank, 615 votes to 177.
For belt builder Paul Earnest, a 15-year Goodyear employee, the announcement was the dropping of another shoe.
"It's been one of their negotiation scare tactics for years," Earnest said. "I guess a lot of folks just got callous to it."
Steelworkers vice president John Shotkoski said he also saw the announcement coming.
"This is nothing they didn't start in January," Shotkoski said. "If I thought they weren't going to do this, I'd be lying."
He said the union will concentrate on belt manufacturing, which will remain in Lincoln. Shotkoski was comforted that the majority of the jobs will stay in Lincoln until the new plant in Delicias opens in mid-2003. Delicias is in Chihuahua state and is about 60 miles southeast of the city of Chihuahua.
"I would hope that with attrition within that year's time, and with the expansion of belt production, we can keep everybody who has some seniority," Shotkoski said.
Belt cutter and father of two Tom Day wasn't surprised to hear the news either.
"It might be my job, since I only got seven years in," he said.
Day is likely to be bumped from his job, because many hose workers have more seniority. Still, he said, he's glad the union voted against the proposal presented Oct 6.
"If we would've took the deal, they still would've moved the hose," Day said. "All they care about is money."
Turner said some layoffs would take place before the Mexican plant opens; those jobs will be moved to other North American plants.
Turner said laid-off union employees could have opportunities to move to any of eight other domestic plants covered by the company's national agreement with the Steelworkers -- if those plants are hiring. He said nonunion supervisors will be extended the opportunity to move on an individual basis.
"There certainly would be no guarantees for anybody," Turner said.
Turner said the new plant will have the latest technology, equipment and processes, and will be more efficient than Lincoln.
Shotkoski blamed the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which eliminated trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico, for the loss of the jobs.
He also called Goodyear management hypocritical for accepting tax benefits under LB775, a state economic development program.
"The corporate world is at it again," Shotkoski said. "Companies are not bashful when they ask for state or local or federal money to help them along the way, (but when they need to save money) they're no longer friendly with the community, the people or the state -- they just pack up and move."
Because the jobs are going to Mexico, Lincoln Mayor Don Wesely said, local laid-off workers will be eligible for up to $12,000 each in federal grants under legislation associated with NAFTA. The money would go toward job retraining, income support while in training and job-search assistance.
Wesely, in a press release, said he is "deeply disappointed" by Goodyear's plans to "replace long-standing Lincoln employees with low-wage workers in Mexico."
He said the city and state governments offered up to $1.5 million to help the company through difficult economic times and keep the jobs in Lincoln.
Wesely said the focus now switches to employees who'll be out of work.
"We will work with the congressional delegation to help secure ... federal assistance available under NAFTA," the mayor said.
Goodyear is the second Lincoln manufacturer to move jobs to Mexico. Circuit-breaker maker Square D announced in February plans to move a product line to Tlaxcala, eliminating 125 jobs here.
Reach Rodd Cayton at 473-7107 or rcayton@journalstar.com.
Until NASCAR announces it disassociation with this turncoat company that became what it is through the wallet of the American worker/consumer, there is no compelling reason for me to give a damn about anyone who gives prime time attention to the Goodyear 'Made In Mexico' image.
Does NASCAR, or any real American want to be pictured with a turncoat that has backstabbed the single greatest market consumer - gullible enough to trust and believe Goodyear was an America First company?????
Listen up NASCAR....Goodyear is a gutter scum anti-American economy slime ball!!!!!
You are who you associate with......Put up or shut down!!!
There is no fender/fence/wall for you to sit on in this fight. You are for us, or you are against us!!!
You fly the American flag, but is it there as a sign of allegiance, or is it there as a used-car lot prop to sucker a profit???
You play the American anthem before each race, but are you willing to walk the walk?
Why do they need job retraining? The good folks at Lincoln NE did their jobs okay. The only sin the Lincoln workers committed was earning a decent wage to support their families.
This typical of the political/elite class's contention that American workers just aren't good enough. By going for cheap labor and subsidized businesses/industries outside the US, folks like Goodyear are only propping up socialist and communist economies.
Yeah, there's plenty of growth opportunity in the high-tech telecom/dotbomb sector, yadda, yadda, yadda...
Maybe everybody can be retrained as web page designers. </sarcasm>
They are in demand.
Only by diploma mills who're peddling "degrees" in web-page design.
What sucks is stupid union work rules that drive companies away.
Belt cutter Tom Day might lose his job because a hose worker has more seniority? Sounds really logical to me. After all, seniority is more important than job performance, or skills, or knowledge, right?
Baloney.
Here in our NON-union manufacturing plant, our workers average more than lawyers. When one of our product lines goes away, we find another. But then we're "right to work", and non-performers have a very short tenure - measured in minutes - regardless of seniority.
Americans can still out-manufacture anybody in the world, on any product, when we use our ingenuity and individualism to our advantage. Stifled by silly work rules and "seniority", expect to see more plants move where the labor is cheaper. Drones that perform rote jobs within a narrow scope by fixed rules ain't hard to find. They aren't expensive, either.
Actually, employees with a suitable aptitude can be quite difficult to find.
Even "dull, repetitive, rote" jobs often require significant training in operation/maintenance of sophisticated equipment to maximize utilization and productivity.
Your lack of understanding and personal disdain for this facet of manufacturing serves to illustrate your own shortcomings as a member of an "Industrial Advisory Committee".
I think corporate America is sick of being strong-armed by Unions, which in essence is driving the cost of business up. I'm not anti-Union, but I'm not desirous of sending every American job to Mexico because the Unions want to play hardball. In a soft economy - you'd better take what you can get.
Go ahead, flame away.
Next January's annoucement will be the plant in Mexico has been moved to Red China and the 480 laid-off Mexican workers are crossing the Rio Grande to collect unemployment.
If you're not familiar with factory operations, I think you'd be surprised at how sophisticated some of the equipment can be to enable companies to profitably crank-out such a high volume of product while continuously improving quality and reducing cost, all the while complying with ever more stringent OSHA and EPA regulations.
Good point. I'm pretty ignorant on how unions are run. For me, unions still equal the "mob". Whenever the subject of unions comes up on here, I pay attention. Minimum wage laws could also be part of the problem...
Yes, and how many of those will be illegal aliens or 'skilled worker immigrants'?
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