Firestone avoids strike in Decatur

Decatur, Ill.--We thought we were going on strike over a new agreement, but Bridgestone/Firestone settled with our union, Steelworkers Local 713. I have mixed feelings about that. It's a great retirement contract, for about 200 people with 30 years or with a little time till they retire.

On the other hand, we didn't have any meetings for the bargaining committee to explain what they asked for, what they got, and what they gave up until a week after they announced a settlement.

People are glad that the demand for mandatory overtime was taken off the table. In the past when we worked eight-hour shifts, if they needed somebody to work overtime, they would tell the lower seniority people to do it. When you work 12-hour shifts, it's hard. They would have to work on their days off too. Everyone, including the replacements from the '94-'95 strike, were willing to strike over this issue.

Firestone had to end rotating shifts, which was the biggest issue in the 1994 strike. At A. E. Staley, where the union got locked out for resisting, they had three days on and three days off, and rotated the start-up time. That kills you. Some of the older workers especially can't take it.

Still, no one wants to work 12 hours. As it is now, we get "half a year" off-in 14 days, we have seven off. In one week, we have four days off and the next week three days off, but not in a row.

Most curemen will tell you they don't like being curemen-mold changers, who are semiskilled, are paid more and the work is easier. A cureman is picking up and throwing tires for 12 hours. You see people getting so tired and disoriented that they start to walk down the wrong aisles while doing their job. It's the most difficult job, by far. You're constantly going around and putting tires into the curing presses.

All I know about the recall of bad tires for Ford SUVs is what I read in the papers. I have heard stories that the bad tires were built in 1994 to 1996 during the strike, or that they started coming out in 1992.

I don't understand how all those bad tires got through inspection. The check system is good if people can do their jobs. Management had me doing things in tire building that I didn't think were right, but using bad material should be caught by the check system.

I don't think the people interviewed in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE in August know what happened to the tires involved in all those accidents, but I know what they were talking about got turned around. It's not unusual to poke holes in tires, not in cured tires, but in green tires before they're baked, and not poked all the way through.

Those men were disgruntled. Maybe they don't care if the plant is shut down, and I don't appreciate that, but I also want the truth to come out. I do believe if we had gone on strike and shut down the plant that way, it would have been for the right reasons, and I would have supported it.

Bridgestone/Firestone said they wanted a smaller workforce when we went on strike in 1994. There were 1,260 who went on strike then. Now there are 1,870. There's also more scrap and less tires coming out. Before '94, you had 25,000 tires built in a 24-hour period. Now we're seeing no more than 24,000 tires in 24 hours.

The problem is with the guys making decisions for the whole company. They're the same guys who in the struggle we had in 1994 caused people to lose their families, their houses, or their health.

-Mold changer