Cooper Tire, drivers of fleet trucks reach deal

2/21/2012

FINDLAY — Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced Monday it had reached a contract agreement with its fleet truck drivers in Findlay.

Cooper said the drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 20, gave final approval Saturday. The new contract is a three-year agreement, though terms weren't revealed.

No one with the Teamsters could be reached.

Cooper continues using temporary labor at its Findlay tire factory. The company's 1,050 United Steelworker-represented employees remain locked out of the plant after rejecting what the company called its last-best offer in November.

Over the last month, Cooper has reached agreements with the labor force at its other unionized U.S. plants, in Clarksdale, Miss., and Texarkana, Ark.

Cooper, sugar workers plan information trip

Four employees of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. are driving from Fargo, N.D., back to their plant in Findlay this week to bring attention to the lockout there, which is approaching its fourth month.

They are to be joined on the trip, which they're calling "Journey for Justice," by four employees of American Crystal Sugar Co. American Crystal locked out members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union from its Grand Forks, Minn., plant Aug. 1 when the two sides failed to reach a contract agreement.

The group is to leave Fargo on Wednesday and arrive in Findlay on Monday — the same day the tire company announces its fourth-quarter earnings. Union officials said the timing was a coincidence.

Cooper locked out more than 1,000 workers at its Findlay plant in late November.