Workers reject unionisation at Cooper's Georgia tyre plant

Albany, Georgia -- Hourly employees at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s Albany tyre plant have voted down a unionisation attempt by the United Steelworkers.

The vote was 755 against the union and 465 for, with seven challenges, according to USW Organiser Lugertha Sharpley, who led the campaign in Albany. Workers voted in sessions June 7-8 at the Cooper facility.

Organisers must wait one year to hold another election for the Albany workers, but the USW can start a new campaign whenever it wants, she said.

The USW--then the United Steelworkers of America--previously made an attempt to run a campaign in 2002, but not enough people were interested, Sharpley said. This time, a group of workers called the union back in October and the campaign started in February.

Two of Cooper´s four U.S. tyre plants--located in Findlay and Texarkana, Ark.--are USW-organised facilities. The company´s Tupelo, Mississippi, factory is non-union. The Albany factory previously was organised under the United Rubber Workers when the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co owned the site.

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