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March 03, 2020 12:38 PM

Workers at Cooper's HQ plant reject proposed 4-year contract

Jim Johnson
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    FINDLAY, Ohio — Union workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s tire plant in Findlay have voted down a tentative labor agreement with the company.

    Members of Local 207L of the United Steelworkers union voted 427-253 against the proposed four-year contract, Local President Brian Brubaker said in a March 3 phone interview.

    "We will request to get with the company and try and get back to the table and move forward on the issues of the contract," he said.

    Mr. Brubaker declined to publicly discuss contract issues.

    "On that," he said, "I'm going to refrain from any comment at this time."

    A Cooper Tire spokesperson also declined public comment on issues surrounding the contract negotiations.

    Union leadership presented the tentative contract to local members but did not make a recommendation regarding how they should vote. Tentative agreements can be presented to union membership with a recommended vote from local leadership or without such guidance.

    "The ratification vote was voted down," Mr. Brubaker said. "We didn't tell anybody how to vote."

    "Right now, just everything happened yesterday," the union local president said. "We're trying to get in touch with the company and get back to the table."

    Union members have not taken a vote to authorize a strike, Mr. Brubaker said. Workers, who voted March 1-2 on the now-failed proposal, continue to work under terms of their contract that expired Feb. 28. Negotiations between the company and union started Jan. 16, and the company announced the tentative 4-year agreement Feb. 23.

    Local 207L represents almost 800 people employed at Cooper's Findlay plant.

    Anne Roman, vice president of communications and public affairs at Cooper Tire, confirmed that union voted down the tentative contract, but the company has little else to say at this point.

    "We don't make public comments on union negotiations," she said. "They did decline to ratify."

    The union was in the process on March 3 of contacting the company with the workers' decision with hopes of restarting negotiations, Mr. Brubaker said.

    Cooper is the No. 5 tire manufacturer in North America, with 4.8% share of the $48 billion market last year, according to the recently published Tire Business Market Data Book. Globally, the company ranks No. 13 with sales of $2.8 billion in 2018.

    The Findlay plant dates to 1914 and has an estimated daily capacity of 18,000 car and light truck tirs per day.

    Cooper also has tire plants in Texarkana, Ark., and Tupelo, Miss.

    The Findlay location is the smallest of the three in terms of production as the Arkansas location has an estimated capacity of 26,000 units per day, and the Mississippi site has an estimated capacity of 37,000 units per day, according to the data book.

    Workers at the Texarkana plant ratified a new four-year labor agreement with Cooper last February. The Tupelo plant is non-union.

    Cooper also operates a rubber-mixing plant in Clarksdale, Miss., where employees are working under a 4-year contract ratified last February.

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