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NASCAR has been an American institution for 53 years. The drivers, the fans, the cars, a symbol of America. But the tires, that could be a different story in the future.
Goodyear has an exclusive contract to make NASCAR tires. The United Steelworkers union accuses the tire company of slowly driving American jobs out of the country to China and Eastern Europe. At a dinner marking the end of the NASCAR season steelworkers protested:
When you mess with the steelworkers, it's gonna be a bad year for Goodyear.
15,000 United steelworkers walked off the job in October over retiree health benefits and job security after Goodyear said it would close a Texas plant. Meanwhile Goodyear has ramped up investments in China where workers are paid 42 cents an hour.
The reality is that the economic trading system is bankrupting America. The economic trading system is showing companies like Goodyear a roadmap out of town.
The steelworkers say three years ago they accepted pay cuts and other concessions that boosted last year's after-tax profits to 230 million dollars.
As a result of that, Goodyear's had an economic turnaround. Their stock price is up, so it means the stockholders did well. The senior management, the president, CEO, and the board and lots of others paid themselves big bonuses. So they've done well.
The striking steelworkers have not done well. Their jobs went to replacement workers. Goodyear declined an interview request, but in a statement said, "We are increasing our domestic production of tires every day and we are importing more tires everyday from our global manufacturing base. All of those tires meet Goodyear's same high standards of quality."
Goodyear's Tyler, Texas plant will close in June. 1,200 workers there will lose their jobs. It's the second Goodyear plant closing in just three years.
Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.
ramp up (phrasal verb)
if a company ramps up an activity, it increases it
Producers can quickly ramp up production.
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