From Staff & Wire Reports
OPELIKA, AL — Michelin North America (MNA) says it will indefinitely lay off some 390 to 520 union workers at its 43-year-old Opelika, AL, tire plant.
The lay offs, said the company, are the result of a 30 percent to 40 percent production cutback at the plant and will come in the fourth quarter of the year. The plant produces broadline tires under the BFGoodrich and Uniroyal brand names, as well as private and associate brand passenger and light truck/SUV lines.
This is the second tire plant – and second former BFGoodrich plant – that MNA is paring. In February, MNA announced that it was closing its Kitchener, Ontario, plant, which also produced broadline passenger and light truck/SUV tires. That union plant is scheduled to close by July 22.
MNA said the cutbacks were necessary due to “intense cost pressure due to imports from competitors in lower-cost countries.” But the USW said Opelika’s problems are “not a productivity issue,” according to Ron Hoover, USW executive vice president. “It’s about marketing, and that’s why we’re working to secure the long-term viability of the Opelika plant by negotiating capital investment expenditures that will enable Opelika to upgrade the products it produces.”
MNA is currently in negotiations for a new master contract with the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents the Opelika plant. MNA was recently set as the USW’s target company in its efforts to establish a pattern contract agreement for the tire industry.
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