The Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Steelworkers of America Local 7521.
The company anticipates that the proposed contract will be brought to the union membership for a vote on Sunday, April 10, 2005. If the new contract is accepted, the union membership would return to work in Cooper's Texarkana, Ark., tire manufacturing facility on Monday, April 11.
Production at the Texarkana facility was halted at midnight on March 12, 2005, as a result of a dispute with the union. The company estimates that the negative financial impact of the strike during the first quarter ended March 31, 2005, was in the range of five to seven cents per share.
The Texarkana facility employs approximately 1,700 production people and produces approximately 40,000 tires per day at capacity.
