While they can’t get back to the bargaining table with Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., the USW took its case nationwide, attempting to garner support with protests at Cooper Tire retailers.
This past weekend, the USW planned “a day of action” and held protests at some 125 tire retailers that sell Cooper tires. The union planned to distribute information about “Cooper Tire’s unfair and illegal lockout” of workers at the tiremaker’s Findlay, Ohio, tire plant.
Among those retailers targeted were Pep Boys stores, which sell Cooper-branded and Cooper-made tires. It is not known how well any of the events progressed, but one such protest in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reportedly drew local members of the eight other labor unions.
According to the USW, “The union is seeking to educate the tire-buying-and-selling public about the lockout at Cooper and to ask store owners and managers to sign onto a letter asking CEO Roy Armes and North American President Chris Ostrander to end the lockout and return to the bargaining table to negotiate with the USW in good faith for a fair contract in Findlay.”