FINDLAY, Ohio (Dec. 14, 2011) — An investigation is under way after a temporary worker at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s Findlay plant was assaulted Dec. 10 in a hotel parking lot.
According to a Findlay Police Department report, Bobby Sellers, a 26-year-old from Leicaster, N.C., was near his vehicle in the Findlay Town Place Suites when a tall, white man approached him and struck him several times with what appeared to be a baseball bat. Sellers fell to the ground and, police said, the subject left.
Sellers went to the Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center for treatment and was released the same day. The police report said there is no indication that he was targeted due to his employment status with Cooper.
The Findlay-based tire maker recently hired temporary workers at the plant after it locked out on Nov. 28 members of the United Steelworkers Local 207L while the union and company negotiated a new contract. The USW rejected by a margin of 606 to 305 votes Cooper's “last, best and final” three-year labor pact offer Nov. 27.