There will be labor peace at Titan International’s three tire plants for the next four years as the tire and wheel maker and the USW came to terms on a new contract. 
The pact covers Titan’s plants in Des Moines, Freeport, Ill., and Bryan, Ohio. The Freeport and Bryan plants have been working without a contract since October 2010.
The new contract, according to the company, gives workers a 6% pay increase over the four-year contract. The percentage of the increase each year will vary from plant to plant, but no increase in a given year will be greater than 2%.
The new contract was negotiated quite quietly compared to past rounds of Titan-USW talks. The USW has slated a vote on the new offer on March 4, but weather and scheduling problems forced them to push the vote back to March 15.
“This is a good contract for Titan employees and shareholders,” said chairman and CEO Morry Taylor. “I believe the Steelworkers have a better understanding today on how Titan needs to use its unionized work force for the benefit of its employees as well as shareholders. Without profit, there are no jobs. This will be the last contract that I bargain with the union, and I assume the same for Jim Robinson, director of the Steelworkers Union.
“Everyone at Titan is looking to increase output, improve quality and on time delivery to our customers. We are anticipating that over the next few weeks we will be adding approximately 300 to the workforce to increase the output of tires,” he continued.
