United Steelworker members at Union City’s Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant put down their tools and picked up their protest signs, trading work for demonstration in a strike that continues now into its fifth day, as of press time Monday.

The USW workers of Union City joined the efforts of the national union by striking alongside the greater part of 15,000 other workers across the United States and Canada. Thursday culminated the negotiation period between the USW union and the Goodyear company. The strike was called nationwide to protest the closing of two plants in Tyler, Texas and Gadsden, Ala.

In the neighboring town of Union City, USW members are walking picket lines at the three main entrances of the Goodyear plant. Workers have been put on a schedule which includes a four hour shift out on the picket line. The strikers will not receive pay until the strike ends. However, a minor stipend will be given from a strike assistance fund if the strike continues beyond three weeks.

The demands of the Union members are simple said Willis Hicks, Union representative for the Union City USW.

“We want to keep all USW plants open. We want a fair and equitable contract. We do not want Goodyear to try to cut our benefits. But most importantly we want Goodyear to remember us and remember how we helped them in the past,” Hicks said.

Hicks feels that USW was forced into the strike. The main focus of the USW workers is to keep the current benefits and pension plan that they have with Goodyear minus a concession package agreed upon in 2003.

On the other hand, Goodyear has concerns of its own.

“We simply cannot accept a contract that knowingly creates a competitive disadvantage verses our foreign-owned competition and increases our cost disadvantage verses imports,” said Jim Allen, Goodyear’s chief negotiator.

Goodyear also feels that the closing of two plants falls along those same lines. In a presentation on Sept. 14 of this year negotiators at Goodyear presented the USW with a plan which called for plant protection for all but two Goodyear master plants.

Furthermore, this strike is the effect of many unresolved issues between Goodyear and USW dating back to 2003. In 2003, with Goodyear on the verge of bankruptcy, the USW agreed to come to the company’s aid and accept a concessionary package. This package called for USW workers take a cut to their benefits and pensions. Because of these efforts Goodyear climbed out of the red.

Now, three years later, faced with two plants closing, and no contract to meet their demands, the union workers feel it is time that they act.

For many USW workers in Union City the strike came as an answer to prayers.

“We are a very versatile plant, producing 80-to-90 different types of tires. Some of our jobs are pretty rough. The heat is tremendous, there are chemicals that we deal with, so we truly earn our money.

But the Goodyear company wants us to take more wage cuts and reduce our benefits, and we just can’t let that happen,” said USW member and resident of Union City who asked to remain anonymous.

However, other members of the union are less enthusiastic about the walk out. Max Burney, one of 2250 USW members at the Union City plant feels that he and fellow union members are being forced into a Catch-22.

“It all boils down to the fact that they [Goodyear] are going to shut down 2 plants and there is nothing we can do about it,” said Burney. “I am paying $900 a year. Is this really the best they [USW] can do for me?”

Burney believes that the union is hosting the strike simply to save face so that the rest of the members believe that the national union is truly concerned, and that he also believes the Union is powerless against Goodyear.

This issue affects more than a grid locked company and a frustrated Union. The strike has had effects all over the nation, including West Tennessee.

Union City is affected by this strike and its outcome both philanthropically and economically.

“The USW workers here in Union City give money to the Walk of Hope. We help with the Habitat for Humanity. We also give a lot of money, over $20,000, to the Telethon of Stars. If we are put out of work it is very possible that we will not be able to give to charities like we have in the past,” Hick said.

Beyond the charitable efforts of the USW these workers also bring money back into the economy of the surrounding areas.

“If this plant goes under, the city will take a hit. Our members live in this area so money is defiantly pumped back into it,” said Burney Many community businesses have taken action to give aid. Rural King has cut the cost of tents used by strikers at their picket lines from $110 to $40 and given a 20% discount on food and drinks to go to the strikers. Hicks believes that more donations are soon to come.

UTM students have also become victims of the strike as well. “My dad isn’t part of the union, but now he has to go down to the floor and build tires and do the work of the union, so does my step-mom.” Said Tommy Gossett, freshman UTM student, who later stated that he feared not being able to see his parents as much now that the strike has occurred.

The USW has not faced a strike of any weight since 1976. That strike lasted 11 months when they were also faced with the closing of another plant in Huntsville, Ala.

Subsequently, the end of the current strike is unforeseen, but Hicks said that the union will not back down.

“We plan to be out here one day longer than Goodyear can stand,” said Hicks.

Presently, Goodyear continues to stand nearly a week into the strike. According to Ed Markey, spokesman for Goodyear, the company has a contingency plan from which they are now operating.

“We will continue meeting production by continuing to operate at nonunion plants, using salary workers in union plants, using our imports and using our available inventory,” said Markey Markey chose not to speculate at this time how long Goodyear could operate under these conditions but made the focus of the company clear.

“We will continue to serve our costumers,” said Markey, who echoes the statements of Allen and feels that the best resolution for Goodyear is to work out a fair contract which would allow Goodyear to stay competitive.

The Goodyear Company has stood as an industry leader in rubber since its founding in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. The first Goodyear plant was located in Akron, Ohio. Today, Goodyear measures sales at over $18 billion.

USW was originally established as the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in 1936. It was created to organize the many men and women who worked in the steel industry in an effort to foster and promote job quality in steel related industries. USW now has 1.2 million working and retired members throughout the United States and Canada.