Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``A seven-day operation is the only practical way for us to get our manufacturing costs down to a competitive level with other U.S. tire manufacturers,'' Richard Switzer, vice president for manufacturing, wrote in a letter mailed Tuesday to the company's workers.
And in advertising scheduled for today's Roanoke Times & World-News, Yokohama aimed to tell its side both to Yokohama workers and the community. Switzer said in an interview Thursday that the company decided to run the ad because it wants to make sure its position is understood.
The seven-day schedule is essential to justify the $120 million investment Yokohama has made at Salem since it purchased the plant in 1989, the company says in the ad. California-based Yokohama Tire is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.
Besides making a case for the weekend work, Switzer's letter to employees listed proposed changes in fringe benefits and mentioned that the company had backed away from increasing workers' health-care contributions and tying cost-of-living increases to productivity.
It has become evident that full seven-day production cannot be accomplished with newly hired workers alone, as the company and union agreed in their now-expired 1991 contract, Yokohama says in the ad.
Union workers and leaders have indicated throughout the contract dispute that making more senior employees work weekends is not a negotiable issue. The union contends the company should hire more workers if it wants to increase weekend production.
However, Yokohama says hiring more people especially for weekends would force the company to operate five shifts, driving up costs and making the company less competitive with other U.S. tire makers that operate seven days a week with four shifts.
Under the old contract, which expired July 23, roughly 150 workers hired since 1991 are required to work weekends. Yokohama wants to expand that pool of weekend workers by 175 people to include everyone hired since Jan.1, 1984.
Before the strike, the company was producing roughly 4,500 tires a day on Saturdays and Sundays, less than one-fourth of the 20,000 a day the company made on weekdays, Switzer said.
Switzer, a Craig County native, said he sympathizes with those who are being asked to work weekends.
"A lot of people have molded their personal lives around their work schedule," he said. "But on the other hand, we have to survive in the industry."
Management had thought the union was going to let workers vote on the company's final contract offer last week and was disappointed when no vote was taken, Switzer said. Union leaders described the offer in a union meeting last Thursday but declared it dead after the workers reacted negatively.
Switzer said he also was disappointed that the strikers have taken out their anger against Japanese workers and visitors to the plant, including an incident three weeks ago in which a striker stomped on a Japanese flag in front of Japanese who were entering the plant.
Yokohama has been producing tires during the strike using temporary workers, supervisors and other salaried workers. Switzer said production has been running about 4,000 tires a day. The company has no plans to hire permanent replacements for strikers, he said.
Because of slow sales before the strike, the company had a large inventory of tires and so far has been able to meet its customers' needs, Switzer said.
Union workers have said they fear that if Yokohama gets its way on weekend work, then the next time a contract is negotiated the company will try to expand the weekend pool to include even more workers.
One worker, a 25-year veteran of the plant who picketed at the main gate Thursday, said he doesn't think the union should negotiate the weekend-work issue. He refused to give his name, saying he fears retribution from management after the strike ends.
What the striker had to say, however, indicates a rift between the union and management that has grown wider over the years.
"Every strike we've had before, the company always told us we'd have to give in," and every contract negotiation has become an issue of what the union was going to lose, the worker said. "I'm getting tired of this crap."
Wayne Friend, Local 1023 president, said Thursday the union had remained firm in its stand against weekend work. Only one union member of nearly 800 at the plant has crossed the picket line, he said.
Friend said he thought managers were trying to escalate a confrontation with the union by bringing in temporary workers and by forcing the union to remove tents and portable toilets from in front of the plant. They were being used by strikers who were walking a picket line.
The company obtained a restraining order against the union this week limiting to four the number of pickets at each gate. That came after large demonstrations in front of the plant during which one striker was arrested.
Another unidentified longtime worker worried that the public looks at Yokohama workers' pay rates and benefits, which are among the highest industrial wages in the Roanoke Valley, and fails to sympathize with their situation.
The average Yokohama worker earns $26.63 an hour in wages and benefits, the union said, but workers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Danville earn about $4.50 an hour more under their latest contract.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***