"The good news is we didn’t get a plant closure notice; the bad news is we did get a notice that they’re going to take tire production out, and then we’ll begin the process of having the discussions we’ve got to have around that," said Jim Wansley, president of USW Local 746, the union representing Tyler Goodyear employees.

The USW struggled to keep the Tyler plant open during contract negotiations last year, and the three-year master contract guaranteed the Tyler plant would be kept open through Dec. 31, 2007. The union president previously said workers were waiting to see if the company would issue a 60-day notice of action to be taken with the plant.

Wansley said the company issued the union the Worker Adjustment Relocation Notice (WARN) Act notification at about 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 30. This is a notice a company must issue 60 days prior to a layoff that will affect more than one-third of the workforce.

"What the WARN Act notice said is that Goodyear intends to end tire production here, not do a plant closure, but end tire production here, some time between Jan. 1 and Jan. 14 of next year, and that just triggers the discussions that we (union and company) will begin tomorrow around what is the timeline for doing that, how many jobs will we actually have here," Wansley said.

The union and company have a preferential hire agreement that will move some workers to other plants if they apply for it.

"That’s one of the things that we’ll have to sit and work our way through," Wansley said.

The company intends to lay off more than 600 workers of its approximately 750 hourly employees.

Because the plant did not receive a closure notice, some may speculate that Goodyear will retain the Tyler facility as a mixing operation, where raw rubber is blended into the different components of a tire. Wansley said the company in 2006 shut down tire production at the Canadian Valleyfield plant and retained it as a mixing operation.

He also noted the master contract states that Goodyear must shut down Valleyfield before it can completely shut down Tyler.

The WARN Act notice lists jobs to be eliminated, but it can be adjusted every 14 days, and generally will be adjusted, he said.

"But right now, the impact of what Goodyear has said they intend to do would be over 600 jobs," Wansley said.

Tom Mullins, president and chief executive officer of the Tyler Economic Development Council, said Wansley was referring to "the multiplier effect."

"The traditional manufacturing jobs have always been the most valuable jobs you can have in a community," Mullins said.

They provide good money and good benefits, and workers and their families spend their money in the community, creating the need for additional jobs.

"Goodyear was paying the most competitive manufacturing wages in Smith County," Mullins said, adding that was a positive for the local economy, but one of the reasons the Akron-based corporation said made it difficult to compete globally.

Efforts to reach a Goodyear corporate representative were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon, but company officials mentioned cutting costs and the shutdown of tire production in Tyler several times during an earnings conference call Tuesday morning.

"On … footprint reductions, we expect to the full planned savings of more than $150 million, compared to the $85 million dollar annual rate reflected in Quarter 3," Mark Schmitz, Goodyear chief financial officer, said during the call. "This would include the effect of the planned shutdown of tire production in Tyler, Texas."

Mullins said the fact that Goodyear did not announce a complete shutdown is positive news, and that any presence it maintains in Tyler could open the possibility of the TEDC working with it and encouraging future investment.

He said the Goodyear Gadsden, Ala., plant reduced production several years ago, but the market changed and the company increased production there.

Mullins said retailers will see a bit of a pinch this holiday season because employees will probably not make major purchases, or purchases that would require a credit line.

"Now that they know for sure that their jobs are going away, they will be forced to cut back on shopping that they would have normally done for the Christmas season," he said, adding the saving could include foregoing dinners out and trips to the movie theater.

Fortunately for the workers, this is happening at a time when Tyler is enjoying a strong economy, with about a 96% employment rate, Mullins said.

"There’s a good chance that they will find employment of some kind," he said, but added many will find it a challenge finding jobs with the pay and benefits they had at Goodyear.

Meanwhile, talks among members of the community to plan for relief for displaced workers will begin again, said state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler.

Eltife is chairman of a task force to assist these workers and their families. It met several months ago at Tyler Junior College, and the state senator said it is time for the group to meet again. He plans to assemble the group in the next two or three weeks.

"The main thing we’ve all waited for is mainly clarity of what is going to happen to the plant," Eltife said. "Now we know that the plant will be reduced to about 100 jobs. We’ll get our group back together and work with Jim Wansley and Fred Peters at TJC and see what we can do to help with the transition."

The task force consists of representatives from nearly all of the local nonprofit agencies, and elected officials.

Eltife, when asked about a previous incentive package assembled locally and at the state level to convince the company to keep the plant open, said he believed the local community did all it could.

During the conference call, Bob Keegan, Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer, and Schmitz repeatedly stressed company goals of increasing production of high value-added tires – a greater number of which the Tyler plant has worked in the past several years to produce – to satisfy increasing demand. Keegan said this third quarter saw the start of projects to expand existing plants in Gadsden, Ala., and Fayetteville, N.C., to produce more value-added tires.

"We have commitments for significant local and state government incentives in both states to fund these projects," Keegan said.

These two plants, and the Tyler plant, were marked for closure prior to the time the master contract was reached last year, and each area developed an incentive package aimed at keeping its plant open.

Local and state incentive monies aimed at keeping the Tyler plant open totaled $12 million, but incentives from Gadsden and Fayetteville were greater.

Goodyear was granted an incentive package worth up to $40 million for its Fayetteville operations, and it received state monies of $20 million for expansion and $10 million for training in its Gadsden plant, according to reports in the Akron Beacon Journal and The Gadsden Times.