Cooper resumes negotiations with locked-out workers

FINDLAY — Negotiations are resuming Wednesday morning in Findlay between Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers union that represents the 1,050 locked-out factory workers there.

The two sides had a lengthy meeting Tuesday and are scheduled to meet again Wednesday, said Pat Gallagher, a United Steelworkers union subdirector.

In a letter posted to the USW Local 207L Web site last week, president Rod Nelson said the last formal negotiating session was Dec. 13, though informal meetings have continued. The letter said Cooper officials gave union leaders a new written proposal on Friday — the first since the last-best offer that the union voted down in November. Management locked out the workers following the vote.

But Mr. Nelson wrote that the negotiating committee was “extremely disappointed” by the Feb. 17 offer and that it “does not even mirror the agreement reached at Texarkana.”

Cooper reached an agreement with its USW-represented labor force in Texarkana, Ark., on Jan. 19. The company also announced a new deal with the USW-represented workers at its Clarksdale, Miss., plant on Feb. 17, and a deal with its Teamsters-represented fleet truck drivers in Findlay on Monday.