More than six months of negotiations and 23 meetings have failed to produce a compromise between Continental Tire North America and the United Steel Workers union to reduce manufacturing costs at CTNA’s Charlotte facility.
CTNA presented the USW with a ninth proposal April 25. The union rejected the proposal and presented a counterproposal that fell short of the $32 million CTNA says is necessary to make the Charlotte facility cost competitive.
“We are disappointed that the union would not work with us to reduce costs and that we were unable to reach an agreement,” said Rick Ledsinger, vice president of human resources for CTNA. “However, we’ve run out of time, and at this point we have no choice but to move forward with our North American restructuring plan and begin to get CTNA back to profitability.”
The Charlotte facility has the highest costs of all CTNA facilities.
