Goodyear to reduce work force

AKRON (Jan. 17)—Goodyear will eliminate 700 salaried positions and 34 hourly jobs by March 31 to improve its cost structure. Most of the cuts will be made at Goodyear's corporate headquarters in Akron and throughout its North American Tire organizations. Of the 700 total, 500 positions will be eliminated through layoffs, 350 of them in Akron. About 200 jobs have been eliminated through attrition during the last quarter of 2002. The 34 hourly employee layoffs will be made at the company's Akron Technical Center. The firm plans to take a pretax charge of about $75 million, resulting in savings of about $80 million yearly, because of the reductions, the company said.