"We were pleased at the cooperation with our union leadership in coming to the table early to help put Cooper Tire in a more competitive position," says John Bodart, acting vice president of Cooper's North American Tire Operations. "This new contract will be factored into the network capacity analysis now being done for all of our manufacturing plants in North America."
USW Local 752L is currently working under an agreement that would not have expired until 2010.
"We stepped up to demonstrate that Texarkana fully understands the challenging situation that Cooper Tire is in and to show that we have the ability to make changes necessary to make sure that our plant is as competitive as possible when all of the plants are evaluated," says David Boone, Local 752L president.
An informational meeting for members will take place Dec. 12 at the Four States Fairgrounds, with a vote taken at the Union Hall on Dec. 13.
Cooper and USW Local 207L, representing workers at the company's Findlay, Ohio, plant, ratified a new, three-year labor contract on Dec. 9.
