Bridgestone/Firestone responds.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(AutomotiveWire)--May 14, 1996--Responding to the press conference held by AFL-CIO and the USWA today, Trevor Hoskins, a spokesman for Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS), said from the company's headquarters in Nashville.

"Yesterday our chairman, Masatoshi Ono met with Victor Thorpe, general secretary of International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), and John Sellers, vice president of the Rubber and Plastics Conference of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), at Mr. Thorpe's request.

"They had a very business-like and frank discussion about this labor situation and agreed that it would take courage for both sides to end it. About ten days ago, George Becker, president of the USWA wrote to our president in Japan expressing his concern that agreement had not been reached. Our president, Yoichiro Kaizaki, replied to Mr. Becker, expressing similar concerns and recommended that Mr. Becker meet with Mr. Ono. We are waiting a response to this letter.

"Mr. Becker has said several times, that this dispute will only be settled at the bargaining table. We completely agree and, following the amicable discussions yesterday are rather perplexed about today's press conference. We have indicated we are willing to meet with them at any time to resume discussions that they walked away from in January of this year.

"The press conference today appears to be simply a continuation of the USWA's so-called corporate harassment and disinformation campaign. They are taking this action because negotiators have been unable to reach an agreement on a contract that expired at six of BFS's manufacturing locations almost two years ago. Following 46 negotiating meetings, the union leadership called a strike in July 1994, and, after 4,000 employees had been on strike for six months, BFS legally hired 2,300 replacement employees to protect our customer base and the jobs of thousands of other employees -- both union and non-union.

"We offered the union a contract that would result in the average tire plant worker making $65,015 annually in wages and benefits and a 15 percent increase, over three years, for working just 14 days a month, while having 189 (over six months) off per year. We question the union's leadership in refusing a proposal which is more than two times what the average American earns in a year.

"As far as the reinstating of union members is concerned, out of the 4,000 who originally went on strike, we now have just over 580 who have not yet been reinstated. We have been reinstating these employees whenever we have appropriate vacancies and, if our business continues to do well, this program will continue.

"In the meantime, we continue to run our plants normally and the public appears to be ignoring the union's corporate campaign. The union has presently decided to focus its activities on our IndyCar racing program which is even more puzzling, as some of our IndyCar tires are being made by its own members at our Technical Center in Akron, Ohio. The others are being made in Tokyo, Japan and we have never made a secret of that -- we always said that we would use all the resources available to us. This has obviously been successful as we have won five of the six IndyCar races held so far this year. Presently, Firestone tires are on the pole at both the Indy 500 and the U.S. 500 -- Indy car races scheduled to run on May 26.

CONTACT: Bridgestone/Firestone

Trevor Hoskins, 615/872-1410 or 800/851-7000