[Imc-newsroom] Release: leaflet/picket at Urbana Tire 3pm Saturday 202 S. Vine Urbana

[Robert Naiman]

For Immediate Release, December 12, 2006
Contact: Robert Naiman, Central Illinois Jobs with Justice, 217-979-2857

Steelworkers, Labor-Community Supporters Take Part in
100-City National Day of Action at Urbana Goodyear,
Saturday, Dec. 16, 3pm, 202 S. Vine, Urbana

Thousands To Call Upon Goodyear to Halt the Assault on the Middle
Class at Demonstrations Across North America

Urbana, Illinois -- Steelworkers  will be joined by labor and
community supporters at an Urbana tire store as part of a 100-city
National Day of Action on Saturday, December 16 to protest Goodyear's
plan to slash retiree health care and abandon communities across North
America.

Some 15,000 experienced Goodyear workers at 15 factories were forced
out on strike Oct. 5 due to the company's demands to gut their
healthcare, close factories and increase tires being imported from
China and other low-wage countries.  The company also is threatening
to walk away from its health care obligations to some 30,000 retirees,
offering a one-time fund that is little more than half of the
company's current retiree health care liability.

"Like many other multinational corporations, Goodyear is walking away
from its American workforce, closing plants and trying to slash health
care and retirement security obligations," said Leo W. Gerard,
international president of the United Steelworkers. "As these giant
corporations desert North American communities, the middle-class is
dying a painful death, deprived of the dream of good jobs and
retirement security."

After workers agreed to sacrifices in 2003 that pulled the company
back from the brink of bankruptcy, the company posted profits of $489
million before taxes in 2005. However, Goodyear has systematically
shut plants and moved jobs out of North America into countries like
China, Slovenia, Poland and Columbia, where violence against union
activists is the worst in the world. Since 2004, Goodyear has invested
$150 million in overseas plants where workers are paid as little as 50
cents an hour.

The United Steelworkers (USW), labor and community supporters will be
holding the demonstrations at the Urbana tire store and other tire
stores across North America in an international effort to educate the
public about the ongoing labor dispute at 15 North American Goodyear
plants. Cities involved in mobilization efforts this weekend include
Bloomington, Chicago, Dallas, Portland, Akron, Little Rock  ,
Baltimore, and many others.

The demonstrations will also highlight the potential tire safety risk
to consumers of Goodyear currently using newly hired replacement
workers to make tires to sell here in America. A 2002 Princeton
University study has linked labor strife, including the use of
replacement workers, with the production of defective tires. The study
examines the causes of the Firestone and Ford recall of 14.4 million
tires in 2000.

The union vows to ramp up its public campaign for a fair union
contract at Goodyear throughout the holiday season and as long as it
takes to gain justice.