From Tire Review Staff & Wire Reports
FINDLAY, OH — The United Steelworkers of America (USWA), in a release issued on Sept. 28, announced that it has filed suit to enjoin the sale by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. of four union-represented plants in the Cooper-Standard Automotive Division, pending “expedited arbitration of a major, sale-related dispute.”
According to the USWA, “Cooper and the Union agreed that Cooper would sell its USWA-represented plants only to new owners who had reached new labor agreements with the Union.”
The USWA and USWA Local 634 of Auburn, Ind., filed a request for injunction on Sept. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.
In response, Cooper Tire issued a statement that read, “The planned Cooper-Standard stock sale has been structured in a manner that would essentially leave the automotive business unit intact, with employees remaining employed, the continuation of all existing union relationships and all existing Cooper-Standard labor contracts remaining in effect.”
Cooper also stated that it “has protected the employees and all Cooper-Standard unions because the sale agreement maintains existing union relationships and existing contractual arrangements. Any labor negotiations between the union and the buyer prior to the sale would be in violation of federal law.”
The plants involved are located in Auburn, Ind., Bowling Green, Ohio, and El Dorado, Ark. Two plants are located in Bowling Green.
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