USW to Take Bold Actions to Achieve Bridgestone Contract

In the US, USW returned to bargaining this week with Bridgestone/Firestone (BSFS) in hopes of sparking serious negotiations, something the Japanese tyre maker has failed to do in over two years of bargaining. At a meeting 12 May in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bargaining committee leaders representing 6,000 rubber workers at the company’s eight US plants set an agenda of action and mobilization that will lead to a 15 July strike if BSFS doesn’t get serious at the bargaining table.

That will include factory-by-factory mobilization meetings by the entire union committee in June, and a mass demonstration at the US headquarters of BSFS in Nashville, Tennessee, on 8 July. That action will be in conjunction with issuance of a mandatory five-day strike notice. USW is seeking job security measures and commitments of capitalization and modernization to BSFS’s US tyre operations. Such assurances have already been won under a pattern agreement with other major tyre manufacturers.