TIA, RMA have checkoff proposal on the table

WASHINGTON (Nov. 24)—Talks are ongoing between the Tire Industry Association and the Rubber Manufacturers Association over a proposed checkoff program plan devised early in November at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas. Antitrust attorneys representing both associations are scrutinizing the proposal, which would charge tire manufacturers and dealers a small percentage of their sales to fund a consumer education program. The proposal now under discussion would be mandatory for the entire industry, said TIA Executive Vice President Roy E. Littlefield III, but also would be subject to an industrywide referendum to make sure the program had unanimous support before it became official. TIA President Larry Morgan, a booster of the checkoff program, said in October he believed there was unanimous industry support for it, but the board of directors of the Texas Tire Dealers Association has since voted to oppose a checkoff.