Broadline - on life support? A year of big buyouts and choppy waters, with union discord, Goodyear strike, plant closings, price hikes sapping profits.(Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.)

Tire Business, December, 2006 by Hockensmith, Lisa

Byline: Lisa Hockensmith

The stagnating broadline tire market-or, more precisely, the dearth of profit potential there-lent a strong hand to many of the year's top news events, ranging from plant closings to financial trip-ups and union battles.

Perhaps the most visible and still continuing episode is the strike by the United Steelworkers (USW) against 16 of Goodyear's North American plants. Some issues in the strike harken back to past years, such as the union's insistence that it made concessions in 2003 and it's the company's turn this time.

But a major point keeping about 15,000 union members on the picket lines since Oct. 5 has been Goodyear's decision to close its Tyler, Texas, tire plant. The firm said that decision is not up for...

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