They make tires for different companies in different parts of the country. But both have seen the devastation caused by unfairly traded Chinese imports.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing recently released a new report calling for stronger policy measures to combat China’s massive, unchecked overcapacity — and we warned that failing to do so will result in a catastrophic loss of jobs and production in the United States.
But we know that it isn’t enough to hear just from us. Sometimes, things are easier to understand when you hear from the people whose lives are most effected by what’s going on.
That’s why as part of the report, titled SHOCKWAVES: The Ripple Effect of China’s Industrial Overcapacity on American Manufacturing and Factory Workers, we also spoke with people who work in the steel, paper, tires, and other industries who have seen firsthand the devastation caused by surging imports.
Below, two tire industry workers share their stories.
Terry Cunningham, BF Goodrich
Terry Cunningham has worked for the past 21 years at the BF Goodrich Ft. Wayne Manufacturing plant in Indiana. As president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 715L, he has seen short-term layoffs at his facility, and is all too aware of what can happen when there’s an overcapacity of imported Chinese tires.
Case in point: The BF Goodrich manufacturing facility in Opelika, Alabama was shuttered in 2009 after a Section 421 trade case initiated by the United Steelworkers that sought relief from China flooding the market with inexpensive passenger tires.
“Fortunately for us, we haven’t had a ton of layoffs, but we ended up losing our sister plant in Opelika right on the heels of the 421-trade case,” Cunningham said. “Overcapacity and all the Chinese imports going on at that time definitely closed one of our facilities.”
Approximately 1,000 tire builders lost their jobs at Opelika, adding to the 4,400 rubber jobs that were eliminated between 2004 and 2009. In 2008, China exported 46 million consumer tires with a value of more than $1.7 billion to the United States.
“The Opelika plant was unionized and because the 421 trade case was one of the first tire trade cases brought on because of all these Chinese imports, by the time we got the 421 trade case ruling in our favor, we had already lost that plant due to overcapacity,” Cunningham said. “Going forward, the trade cases and legislation is definitely important to workers to stop China from funneling tires through Thailand, Korea and countries like that.”
Cunningham understands free market trade, but he just wants it to be fair trade.
“Congress should just create a level playing field,” he said. “If they want to bring them in, make them abide by the same rules that we have to abide by. A lot of them are now building plants on American soil. At least that levels the playing field for us a little bit more.”
James Sheridan, Sumitomo Rubber USA
James Sheridan builds motorcycle tires at the Sumitomo Rubber USA plant in Tonawanda, N.Y., 12 miles north of Buffalo. The facility, once known as Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America, has had several layoffs over the years and announced additional furloughs in early May.
“We had layoffs because of the Chinese flooding the market,” said Sheridan, who is the recording secretary and legislative representative for United Steelworkers (USW) Local 135L. “We are in another truck and bus tires layoff right now because China is flooding the market again.
“The steelworkers have filed another trade case against China and the plant just went down to fewer shifts. China is moving their tire manufacturing to either Taiwan or Malaysia and what they do is subsidize and they flood the market and violate trade laws.”
Sheridan said many trade cases have been filed against China for dumping its inferior tires into the American market during the past 25 years.
“We went to a global conference and we had all the rubber workers from all over the world in Pittsburgh and every single country that was there said the biggest threat to their market, whether it was the European Union, whether it was Scotland, whether it was South America, anywhere in the world they said the biggest threat was China,” Sheridan said. “China is killing everybody. That’s what happens when you have a government that just funds business. They manipulate their currency, so all their products go in lower.”
Sheridan believes that filing all these expensive trade cases is a vicious cycle, but that it must be done.
“I love my union. To see the stuff that they do just makes me happy,” he said. “It makes me happy when guys ask where dues go, and I can tell them.
“When you see a facility close, the ancillary jobs that are lost just decimates a city. Look at Gary, Indiana or Akron, Ohio. The is almost nothing left. That is the sad part of our society.”