Titan to purchase Goodyear Union City plant

ERJ staff report (TB)

Union City, Tennessee -- Titan International Inc. will purchase the former Goodyear passenger and light truck tyre plant in Union City, a Titan spokeswoman has confirmed.

Full details of the deal will be released later today or tomorrow, according to the spokeswoman. She said she was not at liberty to reveal more about the purchase, except that Titan will use the plant for mixing capacity for its tyre operations.

Goodyear closed the Union City plant in July 2011, laying off more than 1,900 workers. The facility had been endangered for two years before that, since it was the only domestic Goodyear tyre plant not covered by a non-closure agreement negotiated between the company and the United Steelworkers union.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Labor gave the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development more than $3.4 million in Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) grants to provide training, career counseling, job placement and other services to 850 former Union City workers. TAA rules allow grants to only half the laid-off workers in any closed plant, a Tennessee Department of Labor spokesman said.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)