Titan's Taylor and union ink four-year pact

March 19, 2013

Titan International Inc. and the United Steelworkers (USW) have agreed to a four-year contract that covers the company's three plants. The plants are located in Des Moines, Iowa (Local 164), Freeport, Ill. (Local 745), and Bryan, Ohio (Local 890).

Workers at the Bryan and Freeport facilities have been working without a contract for the last two years.

“This is a good contract for Titan employees and shareholders," says Maurice Taylor, Titan's chairman and CEO.

“I believe the steelworkers have a better understanding today on how Titan needs to use its unionized work force for the benefit of its employees as well as shareholders. Without profit, there are no jobs.

"This will be the last contract that I bargain with the union, and I assume the same for Jim Robinson, director of the Steelworkers union," says Taylor. "Mr. Robinson started his career in a steel factory working in maintenance. While working at the steel company, he went on to become a lawyer for the union.

"Our views on politics are about 180 degrees apart, but when it comes to the working men and women, we share similar views.

"Everyone at Titan is looking to increase output, improve quality and on time delivery to our customers. We are anticipating that over the next few weeks, we will be adding approximately 300 to the workforce to increase the output of tires."

The new contract gives the workforce a 6% wage increase spread over the four-year contract. The percentage of pay increase each year varies from plant to plant, but no increase in a given year is greater than 2%.

"Titan believes that it can offset these wage increases in better efficiency and utilization,” adds Taylor.

For more information on Titan and its products, visit  www.titan-intl.com.

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