FINDLAY, Ohio—Union workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. facility in Findlay have voted down a tentative labor agreement with the company.
Members of Local 207L of the United Steelworkers union voted 427-253 against the proposed four-year contract, Local President Brian Brubaker said in a March 3 phone interview.
"We will request to get with the company and try and get back to the table and move forward on the issues of the contract," he said.
At this time, he added, there are no plans to strike.
A company spokeswoman confirmed the union did vote down the tentative contract, but she said the company would have little else to say at this point. "We don't make public comments on union negotiations," she said.
Brubaker also declined to publicly discuss contract issues. "On that," he said, "I'm going to refrain from any comment at this time."
Union leadership presented the tentative contract to local members, but did not make a recommendation regarding how they should vote. Tentative agreements can be presented to union membership with a recommended vote from local leadership or without such guidance.
"The ratification vote was voted down," Brubaker said. "We didn't tell anybody how to vote.
"Right now, just everything happened yesterday," the union local president said. "We're trying to get in touch with the company and get back to the table."
Neither Cooper nor the USW provided details on the terms of the tentative agreement.
Workers, who voted March 1-2 on the now-failed proposal, continue to work under terms of their contract that expired Feb. 28. Negotiations between the company and union started Jan. 16. The tentative four-year agreement was reached Feb. 23.
Local 207L represents almost 800 people at Cooper's Findlay plant.
Cooper is the fifth-largest tire manufacturer in North America, with 4.8 percent of the $48 billion market last year, according to Rubber & Plastics News' most recent Global Tire Report. Globally, the company ranks No. 13 with sales of $2.8 billion in 2018.
The Findlay plant dates to 1914 and has an estimated capacity to make 18,000 passenger and light truck tires a day.
Cooper also has manufacturing sites in Texarkana, Ark., and Tupelo, Miss. The Findlay location is the smallest of the three in terms of production, as the Arkansas location has an estimated capacity of 26,000 car and light truck units per day, and the Mississippi site has an estimated capacity of 37,000 passenger cars a day, according to RPN data.