Local union approves Cooper contract

Spokesman says contract makes jobs secure until at least 2019

The Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Texarkana will be secure until at least 2019 after the United Steelworkers Union 752L overwhelmingly approved a new contract Wednesday.

The union approved the contract with 84 percent of the members voting for the contract and 16 percent voting against it.

The plant will continue to operate under the existing contract, but it expires on Jan. 20, 2016.

“Then on Jan. 20, 2016, the new contract kicks in and will be extended to 2019. This provides job security and makes sure the plant will be here. It’s a done deal. The contract will provide security for the plant regardless of the sale of Cooper Tire to Apollo Tyres,” said David Beard, who is an executive board member of United Steelworkers Union and spokesman for the union.

“The contract will provide extra money for employees hired before 2009. They will receive a cost of living check of $1,200 each January starting in 2016,” Beard said.

“Employees will also receive pay raises starting in 2016. It’s a complicated

formula, but the employees will benefit greatly and can afford a better living standard,” he said.

About 1,400 United Steelworkers 752L workers are employed at the Texarkana plant.

“Employees will also see better benefits based on each department including significant pay increases,” Beard said.

However, he declined to discuss specific pay raises because the Findlay, Ohio, plant will be voting on the contract.

“This contract will maintain plant security letter. The plant will maintain 380 tire molds. It means we will be building enough tires to keep the plant going. The contract and the plant security letter is worth its weight in gold. The plant will produce a minimum in a 24-hour day of 30,000 tires,” Beard said.

“The contract is a done deal. If Apollo buys Cooper Tire, we can go back to Apollo and negotiate. The plant security letter is locked in, no matter what happens between Cooper Tire and Apollo,” he said.

A federal arbitrator ruled Apollo must have a labor agreement with the union before the buyout can be completed.

Cooper Tire failed to show Apollo is in breach of its June 12 agreement to buy Cooper at $35 per share, a 40 percent premium, said Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III of the Delaware Court of Chancery in his recent court decision.

Glasscock also ruled Nov. 8 that Cooper offered no evidence to show Apollo is not using its “reasonable best efforts” to complete negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America union, which represents Cooper workers in Findlay and Texarkana, Ark.

Glasscock also said nothing excuses Apollo from continued negotiations with the union.

The union won an arbitrator’s decision Sept. 13 that requires a new labor agreement with Apollo before the takeover of Cooper can be completed. Cooper announced on Nov. 1 that it completed its own agreement with the union on Oct. 30.

Cooper and Apollo are now involved in a convoluted legal battle over the completion of the acquisition before the Dec. 31 deadline.

Apollo reportedly wants Cooper Tire to lower its price to make up for any raises it must give under the renegotiated contracts. The companies disagreed over whether Apollo has intentionally delayed an agreement with the labor union to avoid completing the acquisition or to get a better price.

The companies would combine to become the seventh-largest tire company in the world. It was supposed to close in early October, until the collective bargaining request was granted.

Beard credited the new contract to the negoitations of the union committee, which includes President David Boone, Vice President Tommy Engledowl and the division chairmen, Jim Garvey, Charles Drake, Mickey Watts, Jim McPherson and Tony Thompson.