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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994                   TAG: 9412220054
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UNION WANTS 2ND TRY

Less than three weeks after settling a contentious strike, Local 1023 of the United Rubber Workers Union has asked Yokohama Tire Corp. to reopen its contract with the union.

The union said Monday it wants to renegotiate schedules for weekend work at the company's Salem plant.

Weekend work had been the major issue in a nearly 12-week-long strike that ended with the union's ratification of a new contract Oct. 5.

The union wants the company to reconsider an earlier union proposal that would make all union workers eligible for weekend work but establish this schedule: three days on, followed by two days off, two days on and three days off.

The union also wants a 50-cent per hour raise in each of the first two years of the contract and a 75-cent raise in the third year. The contract was ratified by a 418-297 vote that ended a strike that had started July 23. The contract included cost-of-living raises only.

The contract makes all workers hired since Jan. 1, 1984, eligible for weekend work. It also adds 175 workers to the weekend work pool of 150 workers hired since 1991. About 760 union members work at the plant.

The company had said it must work full production schedules seven days a week to remain competitive in the U.S. tire market.

The new contract angered some union members who thought all workers should have been made eligible for the weekend shifts.

At a regular monthly union meeting Oct. 16, the union's membership voted 233-222 to ask the company to reopen the contract to reconsider the work schedule. The pay rate proposal was added as an amendment.

The work schedule the union wants the company to reconsider is the one the company turned down a few days before the ratification vote.

Local 1023 President Wayne Friend said he didn't have any reason to think the company has changed its mind. He presented the request to reopen the contract to the company Monday afternoon and said he expected a quick reply.

A spokesman at Yokohama's California headquarters said the company would have no comment at this time.

by CNB