
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 2, 1994                   TAG: 9408030028
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STRIKE CONTINUES AT YOKOHAMA

Members of the United Rubber Workers union at the Yokohama Tire Corp. plant have been on strike for nine days now with no sign that labor and management will return to the negotiating table anytime soon.

The 758 union employees at the Salem plant went on strike at midnight July 23, after their three-year contract with Yokohama expired. Roughly 40 non-union workers joined them in the strike.

A dispute primarily over the company's desire to increase the number of employees eligible for weekend work at the plant prevented the two sides from reaching an agreement on a new contract. Other issues that remained unsettled were proposed company changes in vacation scheduling, out-of-pocket health care costs and the way cost-of-living adjustments in wages are determined.

Wayne Friend, president of Rubber Workers Local 1023, said the union was "ready and willing" to go back to the table to settle the strike. He said, however, that the union had heard Yokohama wasn't going back into negotiations for eight weeks.

A company spokesman couldn't be reached for comment, but the company issued a statement Monday saying that the offer it had made to the union "was a fair one and comparable to agreements reached with the URW by other major U.S. competitors."

The statement said the company hoped the current strike would not last long.

Yokohama said last week that it planned to operate the plant with supervisors during the strike. Friend said he heard that supervisors were cleaning up around the plant but were not yet producing tires.

The Salem workers are among nearly 8,000 workers currently on strike against four tire makers. Besides Yokohama, companies involved are Bridgestone/Firestone, Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp. and Dunlop Tire.

The Rubber Workers contend the union's strike fund can withstand a long strike. The fund, which kicks in two weeks after a strike begins, gives workers $100 a week each. With 8,000 workers off the job, the union could end up paying as much as $800,000 a week if the strikes aren't resolved soon.

Knight-Ridder/Tribune contributed to this story.

by CNB