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The Western Kentucky Worker | |
Feature Article
April 2005
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Steelworkers, friends rally at Mayfield Continental Tire plant
By BERRY CRAIG
KEA-NEA/AFT-Kentucky
MAYFIELD, Ky. -- Wayne Chambers drove the little blacktop road to the big Continental-General Tire plant on workdays for nearly 36 years.
"I have never felt prouder going down that road than I did today," said Chambers, Steelworkers Local 665 vice president. "I looked down that road and it was full of union brothers and sisters from different locals and from our local."
About 500 members of Local 665 and its friends recently rallied on a windy, sun-washed Saturday at the 44-year-old tire plant. Chambers said greed led German-based Continental Tire-North America to lay off all but 225 union workers and send production to cheap-labor countries such as Brazil, Malaysia and the Czech Republic.
Continental said it had to idle the Mayfield plant because the facility was old, outmoded and had the highest production costs of any of its North American factories. General Tire opened the plant in 1960. Continental bought out General Tire, an American company.
Terry Beane, Local 665 president, said his union tried to help Continental keep the Mayfield plant going. Local 665 "offered to extend our labor agreement and commit to workforce restructuring, if the company would make an equal commitment to invest in the plant and this community," according to Beane, who is from Mayfield.
The union president told the rally that he and Chambers, also from Mayfield, met with Continental's German executives and with CTNA's stateside brass many times. "The Germans looked me in the eye. They looked Wayne in the eye.
"They said they appreciated our comments on good old Mayfield. They also said, 'We are a global company, and we are going to build our tires wherever we want and as cheaply as we can.'"
Beane said the union huddled with company officials in Mayfield, Paducah, Clarksville, Tenn., Nashville and Pittsburgh. "All we are asking for is something decent that our people can walk away with from this plant.
"I can't make Continental-General Tire give us our jobs back. I can't make them build tires in Mayfield again. I would if I could."
Applause, whistling and cheers interrupted Beane several times. "Continental Tire -- corporate liar!" chanted members and retirees of Local 665, their families and supporters, many of whom belong to other unions, including the Machinists, Operating Engineers, United Auto Workers and American Federation of Teachers.
"CONTINENTAL The company with no conscience" read dozens of white printed signs in the crowd. One man sported a blue "Steelworkers for KERRY-EDWARDS" tee shirt and carried a hand-lettered sign that put a different spin on "C.T.N.A." "C.T.N.A. STANDS FOR CORPORATE TYRANT NEGLECTS AMERICANS" proclaimed his bright yellow placard, which he also decorated with a half dozen dollar signs.
Another man was dressed in a clown suit. "STOP clowning around. Give us our BENEFITS," his hand-made sign urged.
Larry Jaggers, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, was in the crowd. "I am here to show the AFL-CIO's total support," said Jaggers, who drove three hours from Elizabethtown, where he lives.
Jaggers is also a Steelworker. "I am standing in solidarity with my union brothers and sisters. I know what they are going through here. My plant closed a year ago in February."
Matt Aikins of nearby Benton, an organizer with Operating Engineers Local 181, cited some labor history. "Somebody long ago said 'An injury to one is an injury to all.' That's why I'm here."
Benny Adair, also of Benton, agreed. "If one of us is injured, we are all injured," said Adair, a Machinist and vice president of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, which is headquartered in Paducah.
Jeff Wiggins, Council president, gave Local 665 the first-ever Council President's Award. "This is a brand-new award for the float with the most union heart and spirit in the Paducah Labor Day parade," said Wiggins, a Steelworker. "I wanted to present it to Local 665 for their entry in last year's parade rather than waiting until after this year's parade to make the first award."
Wiggins, from Reidland, said he marched with Local 665 "because this is all about the working men and women in western Kentucky. This is about jobs and benefits and what is happening to them in this country."
Continental-General Tire was one of the largest employers in the Jackson Purchase, the Bluegrass State's westernmost region. Two years ago, 1,200 Local 665 members made car and truck tires at the plant on U.S. 45 just north of Mayfield, the Graves County seat, the union said.
Chambers said the factory had some of the best jobs in the area. "Some of us were fortunate to hire in here right out of high school. Thanks to the union, I was able to provide my kids with a lot of things my parents couldn't afford for me.
"Now our kids and our grandkids won't have the opportunity we had. We are losing our jobs overseas because of corporate greed.
"The jobs like ours that are leaving are going to countries where they pay low wages, where they don't have OSHA and they don't have environmental protection laws."
Other speakers included Ron Hoover, Frank Pittman and Danny Bruce. Hoover, from Pittsburgh, is the Steelworkers' national contract coordinator. Pittman, based in Elizabethtown, is Steelworkers sub-district director for western Kentucky. Bruce is a former Local 665 president from Mayfield.
Members of Local 665 passed out orange fliers headlined “CTNA CONTINENTAL AG The Company with No Conscience” The fliers said:
"Continental denies hourly workers plant shutdown benefits.
"Continental in 2003 told the union it needed $35 million per year in cost savings. The total hourly payroll for 2002 was $55 million.
"Continental refuses to negotiate new guidelines for the PBC [Performance Based Compensation] program. So far this year the company has refused to pay $200,000.00 to the active hourly workers in Mayfield.
"On March 31, 2005 an additional 200 laid off hourly workers and their families lost their medical coverage.
"Continental, in violation of the contract, refuses to arbitrate any outstanding grievances. The Union is willing to let an arbitrator resolve all outstanding grievances.
"Continental has refused to honor the Pension re-opener language in the contract. There have been 255 hourly employees retire since April 1, 2003.
"Continental threatened to prolong the process if the Union did not accept their proposals."
The rally began with a march from the Local 665 union hall to the plant, about a quarter-mile away. Besides protest signs, some marchers waved American flags.
The procession stopped in the entrance road next to the plant's near-empty parking lot. Beane, Chambers, Hoover, Pittman and Bruce spoke from a small flatbed trailer hitched to a red Chevy pickup truck with a large American flag fastened to the bed. Old Glory snapped in the breeze.
Beane started the rally by leading the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He also asked for a moment of silence "for our union brothers and sisters who are not with us any longer."
Charles "Coon Dog" Smith of Mayfield, a member of Local 665, offered a prayer. He asked God to "intervene on the part of these brothers and sisters to get a fair settlement."
Beane also acknowledged the Almighty. It rained hard the night before the rally.
"I thank the Good Lord for a beautiful day," he told the crowd. "I didn't know if we were going to get wet, but we were going to have this anyway."
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All pictures on this page copyrighted ©2005, Berry Craig.