QUINCY, Ill. (Feb. 28, 2013) — United Steelworkers (USW) locals at Titan International Inc. plants in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryan, Ohio, and Freeport, Ill., are expected to vote on a proposed 4-year contract the week of March 4, culminating more than five months of negotiations, Titan said in its fiscal 2012 results released earlier this week.
Titan and the union have been negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement since September last year, Chairman Maurice Taylor Jr. told financial analysts in a conference call Feb. 26. Mr. Taylor said Titan believes this proposed contract "is fair to our employees and the company."
The firm's contracts at the Bryan and Freeport plants expired two years ago, and workers there have been working for the past two years under the terms of a "best and final proposed contract," Titan said.
Titan suffered an operating and net loss in the fourth quarter last year, a development Mr. Taylor in part blamed on the unsettled contract situation.
"One of the biggest problems in the quarter was in the performance of the three U.S. tire plants," he said, explaining that the negotiation process involves a great deal of back-and-forth with the union, which then has to take proposed contract changes to the rank-and-file.
That process, he said, is time-consuming and distracting for the workers.
In contrast, he said, Titan's non-union wheel business "drove right along" during the quarter.
Mr. Taylor did not discuss specifics of the proposed contract, but said among the changes negotiated were overtime, work rules and medical coverage (with more employee participation).
Mr. Taylor said the "main thrust of the agreement" from Titan's point of view is to have policies in place to allow an increase in efficiencies while still ensuring the employees will be "some of the highest-paid" in manufacturing.
"We look forward to a positive vote and we hope that they recognize the same thing," he told the analysts.
Mr. Taylor also told the analysts in a veiled reference to his eventual retirement that "if I live to my word from what I am looking to do, then this was my last time that I'll have to go through negotiating a contract with the U.S. labor union."
Mr. Taylor, 68, told analysts last year: "I figure I have two more years to get this all done."