Tire plant reportedly closing



From Staff and Wire Reports

Officials at Bridgestone/Firestone's Dayton Tire plant scheduled meetings with the news media Friday afternoon amid reports the company planned to close the factory.


The plant employs 2,200 workers, according to the state Department of Commerce.

The company's chief spokesman Dan MacDonald, who is based in Nashville, Tenn., was in Oklahoma City on Friday. He did not immediately return telephone calls.

The plant's union contract with United Steelworkers expires in July. A union spokesman declined comment.

A state official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the company was preparing to announce plans to eventually close the plant.

Gov. Brad Henry planned a 2:30 p.m. news conference to discuss "the developing situation," his spokesman Paul Sund said.

MacDonald told The Oklahoman last month that the plant was facing major challenges.

"Unfortunately, the market is moving away from the tires made in Oklahoma City," he told the newspaper. "Even with substantial new investment, the plant won't be competitive."

The plant makes 13-, 14- and 15-inch tires for cars and light trucks, while 16-inch tires have become a more popular size for tires.

And a new plant will open in _________________.
(Fill-In-The-Blank with your cheap-labor country of choice.)

Or they're just trying to get some sweet offers like what we were using to get GM back?

The thing is, the Legislature wrote up an incentive package a couple of years ago tailored to Dayton's specific needs - do this, we'll do these things - and they didn't take advantage of it. Debbe Leftwich, who did the heavy lifting on that package, seems quite annoyed, and I don't blame her.

The workers' unions are partially to blame for making it so cost effective for their employers to shift their labor overseas. I don't care what planet you're on, a factor worker with a HS education and no real skills is simply not worth the type of money they were/are being paid at these tire/car factories.

Our politicians will come back and try to use this as a reason to push tort reform and worker's comp reform -- that has nothing to do with it. It's salaries, pensions, and insurance that they won't have to pay to the workers in their brand new factories in bu-bu-foo.