We hear the term strategic voting these days. As it relates to south Georgia, the possible closing of the Copper Tire Plant in Albany compels the African American community to consider keeping Saxby Chambliss for this important fight. Yes, I live in Sylvester, Georgia, and I have many family and friends working at the plant—little league coaches and good church members. Every plant or military job means two or three other jobs in the area.
Senator Sam Nunn focused Georgia to protect our military bases from closure in the past and that senior congressional leadership for this coordinated Copper plant effort falls to Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Sanford Bishop. I declare the contest between Bishop and his opponent over so he can use the campaign energy to protecting my neighbors’ jobs.
Copper officials expect a decision by mid-January and getting a newly elected Senator “up to speed” is out of the question.
Officials fight for plant
http://www.albanyherald.com/stories/20081024n1.htm
ALBANY — Officals with the Georgia Department of Economic Development flew into Albany Thursday to explore ways to help Cooper Tire in Albany remain open.
Citing excess U.S. production capacity, the Findlay, Ohio, company announced Tuesday that at the end of a 90-day capacity study, one of Cooper’s four U.S. tire manufacturing plants would likely be closed.
Cooper expects to make a decision within 90 days — by Jan. 19, 2009 — or less, spokesperson Curtis Schneekloth said.
While Cooper has invested “millions every year” in the Albany plant, “a likely outcome of the study is a plant closure, unfortunately,” Schneekloth said.
With the replacement tire market expected to decline 1-2 percent annually over the next three years, Cooper will examine many factors, including total cost savings, plant performance and quality, community impact and customer service, a statement from the comapny said.
Approximately 1,300 Cooper employees and some 800 temps are employed in Albany when the tire plant is at full production.
The other plants being considered for closure are in Findlay and Texarkana, Ark., where workers are represented by United Steelworkers, and a plant in Tupelo, Miss., which, like Albany, is not unionized.
Cooper will examine labor relations in the capacity study, Schneekloth said.
“It’s not a negative or a positive; we’re just going to consider labor relations overall,” he said.
United Steelworkers is now in contract talks with Cooper on behalf of workers in Findlay and Texarkana, spokesman Wayne Ranick said.
“I’m sure maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship is a top priority for both sides,” Ranick said.
In Albany, local, area and state officials returned to the plant Thursday to “further explore the scenario, the things that Cooper is looking at and looking for,” Dougherty Commission Chairman Jeff Sinyard said.
“We were trying to get a better feel for putting together a package of things they may or may not be utilizing in Georgia,” he said.
“We do see this as an opportunity for Albany, and we’re trying to progress this thing forward.”
Sinyard said the “tremendous,” highly diverse work force at Cooper in Albany was a strategic asset, and calls from neighboring communities — like Sylvester, Moultrie — with “skin in the game” were rolling in.
“Cooper competes in a global economy, and there are two American tire companies left, Cooper and Goodyear,” he said. “They have forward-thinking leadership that’s making sure that they can compete.”
Heidi Green, deputy commissioner of global commerce for GDEcD, Sinyard and officials with the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission were among those who met at Cooper Thursday.
GDEcD spokesperson Alison Tyrer said the mission was an exploratory one.
“We offer a lot of assets to make them globally competitive and successful. We will do our utmost to help them understand that we’re here to help,” Tyrer said.
In recent months, GDEcD has heralded Pirelli Tire’s Oct. 2 expansion announcement in Rome, Toyo Tire’s Aug. 26 announcement of a third expansion in Bartow County and a May 12 groundbreaking for Kumho Tire in Macon
Project Logic Ga 
Without union representation, Albany can forget about it.
Dan: don’t get me started on unions. They really helped secure decent basic pay, fairness in employment and safety standards; however, I was in college in Albany when my brother-in-law and many people I knew worked for Firestone in the location where Copper is.
The UAW collects dues and push and push for more from management to justify the union. The problem is that at some point the union must be delicate with the cooperation because the cooperation could fail. Firestone made rubber tires for big cars rather than the radials that the Japanese imports were wearing. Of course, the UAW supported the Detroit plant. When Firestone came to the union and said back down a little because we are in real trouble, the union considered it a bluff.
Side note: it is a dirty game, a dirt game, a dirt game. Firestone originally looked to put their Georgia plant in several south Georgia towns but the local powers did not want working class Blacks and Whites making great wages because no one would be around to pick the rich planters’ crops.
So, Firestone closed the Albany plant and many of those guys wished they had asked the union to back down a bit. I don’t remember the exact number but when I worked on the Hill a UAW lobbyist told me that a surprising amount of the cost of a 20K American car went to benefits for the automakers—maybe 20%. For sake of full disclosure, if I knew the economy and job market was going to be as bad as it is and has been, I would have kept that Hill job also.
First rule: protect your check.