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VIDEO: Continental Tire's Attack on Retired Union Workers in the U.S.
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letter to Continental Tire Click Here
Congressional Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Call on Continental Tire to Restore Retiree Healthcare
Letter from Caucus Co-Chairs asks company to fulfill contractual obligations to retired workers
In a letter to Alan Hippe, President of Continental Tire of North America (CTNA), Congressional Labor and Working Families Caucus Co-Chairs Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and Michael Michaud (D-ME) urged the German based tire manufacturer to rescind cuts to the company’s retiree healthcare plan. The members of Congress wrote, “Continental Tire retirees deserve fair and just health benefits that allow them access to quality care. We hope you will promptly fulfill Continental Tire’s contractual obligations to retired workers.”
CTNA, the North American tire manufacturing subsidiary of German tire and auto part manufacture Continental AG (OTC: CTTAY) illegally imposed a $3,000 per year cap on payments for retiree healthcare earlier this year. As a result of the company’s cuts many retirees have to pay as much as $12,000 a year to keep their health insurance.
In July of this year a Federal Judge found the cuts were illegal because they violated the company’s contractual obligation to the retirees. Some 2,500 retirees and their dependents are impacted by the company’s illegal action. Days after the court’s ruling, however, Continental fired back, issuing a press statement announcing that it would refuse to rescind the cuts pending the outcome of the appeals process.
In their letter, the Co-Chairs of the Labor and Working Families Caucus urged Continental to comply with the court’s ruling, “we write to urge you to work with all due speed to comply with the court order of July 31, 2007 and to rescind the drastic cuts in healthcare benefits to retired Continental Tire of North America Employees. The reduction of healthcare plan benefits imposed on March 1, 2007 has severely jeopardized the future health of Continental Tire’s retirees and their dependents.”
Sánchez, Lynch and Michaud also pointed out that the company’s illicit actions were having a particularly devastating impact on Continental Tire retirees. “Considering the 30-plus years of dedicated service some former Continental Tire employees performed and the extraordinary health hazards associated with the tire industry, it is difficult to understand the lack of adequate healthcare benefit contributions they receive. Published medical research has shown that workers in the rubber industry suffer excess mortality rates from heart disease and various types of cancer.”
Abandoning U.S. Production and Short-Changing Its Workers
Continental Tire of North America (CTNA):
Imagine a foreign corporation that buys a U.S. company and decides to treat its American employees, especially those represented by a union, as badly as possible. That’s exactly what German corporation Continental AG has accomplished in just a few short years by managing its American operations almost into the ground.
At all three of its unionized locations in the US, Continental has shut down or sold off its production of tires, devastating thousands of families and their communities in the process, and moving jobs overseas. And to make its insult to Americans complete, Continental has recently announced plans to stop paying retirees health care benefits that can make the difference between life and death.
The question for all Americans is whether we should continue to buy tires with the Continental brand name.
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