Hundreds of people streamed out of Lincoln’s Goodyear plant in Havelock on Thursday toward an uncertain future. 

Thousands represented by the United Steelworkers at 16 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plants in 10 states and Canada  — including more than 500 workers in Lincoln — went on strike at midday after the company and union negotiators failed to agree on a new labor contract.

"We need a fair agreement," said Sally Edwards of Lincoln, a union leader with 39 years of service at the plant who joined those who walked off the job.  "We need to protect our plants, protect our retirees … people put in 30 years here and expect their benefits to be protected."

The old contract expired July 22 and both sides agreed to an indefinite day-to-day extension. The union gave 72-hours notice on Monday and said they would terminate the contract if an agreement wasn’t reached.

At noon Thursday, they walked out of the plant on North 56th Street, moments after blue-shirted executive committee members of United Steelworkers Local 286 brought news that no agreement had been made from the union office a block away on Seward Street.

Within minutes, a stream of cars began leaving the plant parking lot. Some employees, signs in hand, began picketing.

“It’s very hard to go in there and tell people to come out," said Gary Schaefer, vice president of Local 286, which represents 560 people who work at the Lincoln belt plant. "It’s kind of emotional … life-changing.”

He said he hoped the strike will not last long. But if it does, he said he had no doubts his members will stick to their commitment.

“The resolve is there,” he said.

“Let the (negotiators) take a break, get their thoughts together and get back to the table,” Schaefer said hopefully.  “Put some new proposals on the table.”

The prime issue of the strike is job protection and the possibility of closing plants in Gadsden, Ala., and Tyler, Texas, both of which were reported to have been left off the company’s last proposal offering unspecified protection of 10 other plants in the United States.

The Lincoln plant already is protected from closing under an earlier agreement that guaranteed at least 325 union jobs at the plant through July 2009.

The company said the union rejected a comprehensive proposal that would improve Goodyear’s competitive position while maintaining “substantial commitment” to manufacturing in North America.

“Negotiations stalled after the union's proposals to Goodyear did not include key items found in their agreements with competitors,” the company said.   It did not specify those key items.

 “We simply cannot accept a contract that knowingly creates a competitive disadvantage versus our foreign-owned competition and increases our cost disadvantage vs. imports," said Jim Allen, Goodyear's chief negotiator.    Goodyear did not elaborate on that disadvantage. 

BFGoodrich, owned by Michelin, a French company, settled with the Steelworkers earlier this year.

Goodyear said its final offer to the union, delivered Thursday morning,  included provisions for job security and significant investments for union-repesented plants, a company-funded plan to secure retiree medical benefits and restoration of prior pension service credit.    Goodyear also has non-union plants, including one in Norfolk

 "We remain willing to continue to bargain with the Steelworkers," said Allen.  "In the meantime we have implemented our strike contingency plans at the affected facilities and are working to minimize impact on our customers."

 The nature of those contingency plans was not clear, but union officials said they had no reason to believe the company would try to bring in strike breakers.

Goodyear employees last went on strike in 1997 for three weeks.    In 1976, they were out for four months.

This confrontation appears to some union members to be as serious as it could be. 

“This isn’t going to be a four-week job,” said Bill Lafler, who has 19 1/2 years at the plant, and was off work, anyway.   “I tore my knee out in there,” he said.  “Now I don’t have a job.   What am I gonna do?

“I don’t think we’ll get back in.”  

Other issues less prominent than plant closings and job protection are benefits, like health insurance for retirees, which union members said the company is trying to erode.

“We gave a lot of concessions while I was still working,” said Larry Holle of Lincoln, who retired from Goodyear six years ago after almost 40 years.  “I think we ought to be protected.”

He’s committed to the union, its active workers and the strike. “I paid dues all those years, we need to stand behind them,” Holle said. 

Steve Randall of Palmyra, with 33 years of service, fears for his own future.

“I’m about ready to retire,” he said.   “If I don’t have health benefits I can’t retire.” 

Another issue still hanging is one brought by the company to Local 286 months ago: reclassification of employees in a way that would reduce some wages.

The local plant is a  shadow of what it once was, when it employed almost 2,000 people.   The employee count now is down about 300 from what it was in 2004.

“The majority of people here, not all of them, have enough seniority, they went through the 1976 strike, 124 days, so they know what the potential is for this one,” Schaefer said Thursday, before the strike started.  “These people know what to expect, how to handle themselves, what’s going to be going on.”

Resentment has mounted during these negotiations, which started in earnest in May, because union members have sacrificed before.

“(Goodyear) wanted to file bankruptcy in 2003,” Schaefer said.  “Our membership stopped them and made concessions. It’s totally unfair, what they’re doing.”

Goodyear has been reviving its fortunes in recent years as it went on a cost-cutting campaign.   In 2004, it scored its first profitable full year since 2000.  

Edwards,  who works in the union office,  blamed  the latest conflict on the people running Goodyear.

“We’re dealing with a different type of management,” she said.  “People we dealt with before had compassion.   Now it’s all greed. We just want a fair agreement.”

As people walked away from the plant on Thursday, Lafler warned aloud of the necessity for strikers to clock out if they expect to get paid for the time they worked.

“If you don’t,” he said, “you quit.”

Plants on strike 

North American Tire:

Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Gadsden, Ala.; Topeka, Kan.; Tyler, Texas; Union City, Tenn.

Engineered Products: 

Lincoln, Neb.; Marysville, Ohio; St. Marys, Ohio; Sun Prairie, Wis.

Canada:

Collingwood, Ontario; Owen Sound, Ontario; Toronto Logistics Center; Toronto Commercial/Retread

The Associated Press contributed to this report.