This will not be enjoyable.

Fingernails screeching down a blackboard. The dental drill hitting an under-novacained nerve. April 15th. The things I dread have been expanded with the filing of an antitrust lawsuit by Goodyear against most of the manufacturers of EPDM.

EPDM makers have been under scrutiny for about 18 months, along with other rubber chemical suppliers, for various antitrust violations in both North America and the European Union. Crompton recently reached an agreement with U.S. and Canadian authorities granting the company amnesty in the various probes of those two countries in return for cooperation in the investigations and the payment of $57 million in fines. Crompton pied guilty to "participating in a combination and conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by maintaining and increasing the price of certain rubber chemicals."

I may be somewhat ignorant when it comes to the corporate culture of multinational companies, but I'm willing to wager that most of them have a mission statement about maintaining or increasing the price of their products. The converse of this is bankruptcy.

But Crompton pied guilty because they participated with others, and if this was the case, that's stupid. History is well stocked with cases of companies and industries that have attempted price fixing schemes only to be caught and penalized. What were those involved in these discussions thinking?

Now come the lawsuits. Goodyear's suit names Bayer, Crompton, Dow, DuPont, DSM and Polimeri Europa. I believe it is only a matter of time before the legal departments at the other major tire manufacturers file their own complaints. A class action suit in California targets rubber chemicals used in tire manufacturing and names Bayer, Flexsys and Crompton. You can be sure you will be seeing ads from law firms throughout the country asking individuals and companies to join some sort of class action suit.

As the Doobie Brothers once sang, "I ain't blind but I don't like what I think I see," as they were "Taking it to the street," I'm worded. Now the rubber industry is taking it to the court, and it's not a pretty sight.