December 2006

More pictures below

Paducah ‘National Day of Action' draws 53 Steelworkers and supporters

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT-Kentucky/KEA-NEA

PADUCAH , Ky. -- Several signs and a pair of big banners at the Paducah “National Day of Action” rally didn't pull punches.

“WILL GOODYEAR'S REPLACEMENT WORKERS KEEP DRIVERS SAFE?” the banners asked. A picture of an overturned SUV punctuated the question.

“We want to make people aware that replacement workers are not qualified to build tires,” said Willis Hicks, recording secretary of Steelworkers Local 878L in Union City , Tenn. “One mistake can make a bad tire. That one mistake can be fatal when that bad tire is put on a vehicle.”

Hicks and about 15,000 other Steelworkers are on strike at 15 Goodyear tire plants, including the giant Union City tire factory about 60 miles from Paducah . 

Goodyear has hired several replacement workers at the plants affected by the strike. The union says the replacement workers are not qualified to make tires.

Local 878L members, other Steelworkers and supporters from other unions gathered outside a Paducah Goodyear tire store on Dec. 16 as part of a “National Day of Action” on behalf of the striking Steelworkers. The USW and AFL-CIO jointly sponsored more than 120 rallies across the country at stores that sell Goodyear tires.

The USW says it called for a “National Day of Action” to step up the union's "public campaign for a fair union contract at Goodyear through the holiday season and as long as it takes to gain justice.”

Hicks said defective tires made by replacement workers during a 2000 strike at the Bridgestone-Firestone company have been linked to 271 fatalities and more than 800 injuries.

“We don't want anybody to get hurt by a bad tire,” said Hicks, a 35-year Union City plant employee. “We think the best tires are built by experienced, professional people.”

At least 53 people showed up for the Paducah rally, said Ron Spann of Paducah , a USW international representative. Rally goers gave Goodyear 53 votes for “Grinch of the Year.” Jobs with Justice, a national coalition of union, community, religious and student groups, sponsors the annual balloting “to highlight the corporation that most harms workers and their families.”

Steelworkers are walking picket lines at a dozen Goodyear plants in the U.S. and three in Canada . The union says Goodyear workers “were forced out on strike…due to the company's demands to gut their healthcare, close factories and increase tires being imported from China and other low-wage countries.” Goodyear “also is threatening to walk away from its health care obligations to some 30,000 retirees, offering a one-time fund that is a fraction of the company's current retiree health care liability,” according to the USW.

“In '03, Goodyear was in trouble, so they asked us for concessions,” said USW Vice President Kip Phillips, who lives near Benton . “The union gave them concessions and helped them restore their profitability.”

The USW says Goodyear posted before-taxes profits of $489 million in 2005. Even so, the union adds, “Goodyear has systematically shut plants and moved jobs out of North America into countries like China , Slovenia , Poland and Columbia , where violence against union activists is the worst in the world.”

Since 2004, Goodyear has invested $150 million in foreign plants where workers are paid much less than workers in North America , “as little as 50 cents an hour in some cases,” the union says.

Union members rallied at Purcell Tire on U.S. highway 60. “This isn't against Purcell,” Phillips said. “They're good people. We just want to send Goodyear a message.”

Messages similar to the one on the banners were displayed on smaller signs that showed flat tires framed by crumpled fenders. “GOODYEAR: Recklessly Driving Jobs Out Of America” said other signs that were printed bright red to look like Chinese flags.

“Goodyear wants to close plants,” said Kevin Brown, another of the striking Union City workers at the rally, most of whom rode to Paducah in a charter bus. “We want to keep them open."

He added, “They're trying to throw people who are retired with 30 or 35 years service out to pasture with nothing. That's not fair.”

Jane Haines retired after 28 years at the plant. “The union is everything to me,” she said. “It is our past, our present and our future all rolled into one.”

Local 878L member Jerry Jones nodded. “I think this [National Day of Action] will get Goodyear's attention,” he said.

The rally got the attention of many motorists on the busy four-lane road. Several car and truck drivers smiled, waved and honked their horns. Some flashed thumbs-up signs.

Other unions represented at the rally included the Machinists and the American Federation of Teachers -- Kentucky .

“I'm here to support the brothers and sisters who need support -- it's that simple,” said Howard “Bubba” Dawes, president of Machinists District Lodge 154 in Calvert City and a delegate to the Western Kentucky Area Council, an association of regional AFL-CIO unions.

The Area Council recently voted unanimously to donate $500 to the striking Union City workers.

“I came to back my brothers and sisters in their struggle against a tyrant company,” said Jeff Wiggins, Area Council president. He belongs to USW Local 9447-5 in Calvert City and sits on the Kentucky State AFL-CIO Executive Board.

A contingent from Paducah USW Local 413 helped swell the crowd. “I think Goodyear will pay attention to this,” said Christian Johnson, Local 413 president.

Ab Jones, a union brother, agreed. “We wanted to let our Union City brothers and sisters know that we back them,” said Jones, a big, bushy-bearded ex-paratrooper who rolled up on a shiny Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Bobby Pierson, a USW staff representative from Owensboro, came in a car. “We want to help make the public aware of what Goodyear is trying to do to the active employees as well as the retirees,” he said. “We've got to stop these attacks on the middle class and we have got to stop these companies that have been synonymous with quality for years -- the Goodyears -- from walking away from this country.”

Standing near Pierson was Randy Johnson, who belongs to USW Local 5-550 in Paducah . He said he was at the rally “to support my brothers and sisters at Union City .”

Roger Green of Local 878L said he wanted to demonstrate solidarity with his union and his favorite college football team, the Tennessee Volunteers. Never mind that Paducah is University of Kentucky Wildcat country.

Green got off the bus sporting a bright orange UT jacket. “I'm for the Steelworkers and the Vols,” he said with a grin.

-- Berry Craig is a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, a freelance writer and a member of AFT-Kentucky and KEA-NEA and the Western Kentucky Area Council Executive Board. 

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All pictures on this page copyrighted ©2006, Berry Craig III.