Timken and Steelworkers Open Canton Plant Negotiations

After a cooling-off period, allowing strident rhetoric to die down and the unwanted public eye to shift away, The Timken Company (USA) and the United Steelworkers of America have agreed to sit down and negotiate in earnest. At stake are the fates of three Canton-area bearing manufacturing facilities and 1,300 jobs. Timken announced in early May the three would be shuttered because they are no longer competitive within the Timken organization. • article: Timken may close three Canton-area bearing plants The three plants are Canton Industrial Bearings -- sitting next door to corporate headquarters, Gambrinus Industrial Bearing, and Gambrinus Roller Bearing. Canton was built in 1901, the two nearby Gambrinus plants were built in 1929. An unexpectedly high level of attention met the announcement, as it became a rallying point for politicos, protectionists, anti-trade activists, labor leaders, every presidential candidate, and the usual cadre of issue-chasing, microphone-obsessed pundits. In an area that supported President Bush in the last election, they wasted no time trying to portray the issue as what it was not -- a juicy problem of labor and management at loggerheads over key touchstone campaign issues in Ohio, considered a key state in electing the next president. Many experienced industry and labor watchers told eBearing they believe this surprise spotlight caused both organizations -- unaccustomed to and unprepared for the situation -- to immediately dig in their heels. Publicly standing down would have meant losing face and negotiating power, quite possibly on the evening news across the United States. This two month hiatus has allowed time for the outsiders to move on, following the political media circus to other parts of the country. Meanwhile, Timken and the Steelworkers both were able to shake off the leg irons, sit down and pursue the situation as the business issue it truly is. In a joint statement, Timken and the United Steelworkers said they, "have agreed to enter early formal negotiations over the current labor contract, which expires in September 2005. The current contract includes associates in steelmaking operations in the Canton district, in addition to the company's bearing plants in Canton." The most likely outcome, according to several labor union negotiators contacted by eBearing, is the bargaining unit contract will be split between bearing plant and steel plant workers. Both Timken and the Steelworkers, they point out, are far different organizations than when the joint bargaining unit was set up, as are the competitive environments in which they both operate. Summing up, the joint statement said, "Consistent with prior practice, there will be no further comments until discussions are completed."