is really about time someone tells the truth about these people Criticism is redundant While Joe Shaheen (letter, Dec. 17)) is certainly entitled to his opinion on his former employer’s CEO and upper management, his constant character assassinations of Mr. Armes seem more than a little redundant. While he has serious concerns about the direction Cooper Tire is headed, whether the company is for sale or looking to invest in smaller tire companies to purchase is over the heads of most blue-collar workers. There is certainly a lot of business education needed at institutes of higher learning as well as years of working one’s way up the corporate ladder to reach the position of CEO. I have never met any of the management at Cooper, but I have known many workers on the line over the years. It was always and I’m sure it still is, a great place to work. While the pay and benefits may have taken a hit in recent years, Cooper Tire is far from the only one to do this to its employees. Everyone’s health care costs have risen way past the rate of inflation and businesses are forced to pass the costs along to employees. Sometimes, it is easy to criticize others when we think we know more than they do. But for those of us in the auto repair field who have seen sales of tires from Korea and China grow by a huge margin in recent years, cutting into sales of American tire companies, it is more important than ever to have company leaders who have the knowledge to navigate a company through the changing times so the business remains competitive and keeps the shareholders happy. Gary Essinger Palm Harbor, Florida – ‘Team’ showed its integrity With all the support for the Cooper Tire & Rubber “team” in Findlay, let’s not forget, there was no consideration to over 1,000 families when Cooper management decided to lock out its Findlay workforce right after Thanksgiving several years ago. There was no thought or consideration to what the entire area would lose, that includes the loss of revenue to Findlay even, to say the least of the families that were harmed because this same team was intent on shoving a contract down workers throats. Some say even busting the union was an intent. It was all planned, well before the doors were locked, right before the holidays. Then the fiasco with Apollo, I think this same “team” showed their integrity quite well. Note they had a golden parachute in place for themselves, but contracts had to be signed by end of year, if I recall. And, oh, the corporate temper tantrum when Apollo found out honesty wasn’t on the table as well. This team really has looked rather greedy through the entire Apollo event, regardless of right or wrong, they tried to cram Cooper down Apollo’s throat. Remember, these same team members stood to gain quite a bit of money for themselves. After the lockout, during negotiations, it was stated, clearly in this newspaper, unless the NLRB charges were dropped, 8-10 workers would be fired before they returned to work for infractions during the lockout. NLRB charges weren’t dropped and, to stand tall on their threats, these workers were fired, some for Facebook posts made by family members, others for posting pictures that were already public. All the money wasted, undue stress on families for these cases to go through arbitration, just so Cooper would lose and have to bring these workers back and be made whole. I have never had anything I did that someone just didn’t like end in retaliation against my husband with a termination. Thank you, USW, because without the union, there would be very little recourse or chance that he would have been made whole and right the wrong. Also, the 100-year celebration? Why did upper management not want the retirees invited? Again, the USW should be thanked. These retirees had more to do with making Cooper a success than the team in place that, if they had their way, would have sold before it hit the 100-year mark. You can’t buy integrity! Sue McKinley Findlay
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 20:22:48 +0000
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