Findlay dispute - a sign that a 'more combative tone' is returning? More at stake than just wages and work rules, says Cooper

摘要

In November and December the tyrepress.com website published a number of texts updating the progress, or lack thereof, of negotiations between CooperTire & Rubber and the United Steelworkers towards a new contract for Cooper's Findlay, Ohio plant. At the time of writing, 9 December, the two parties had reached an impasse and a federal mediator had failed to bring them closer to a solution. The current standoff between union and tyre maker is not the first Tyres & Accessories has reported, and is certain not to be the last. Yet some think what is happening in Findlay shows the direction US labour relations are taking; the Wall Street Journal, for example, opines that "the clash between Cooper and its 1,050 union workers may signal a return to a more combative tone in the America's industrial heartland."