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Cooper Tire workers in Findlay, Ohio yesterday ended a 92-day lockout after voting 627-321 in favor of a new five-year contract.
Since Nov. 28, the 1,050 workers have been locked out of the plant after rejecting the company's initial offer.
Employees from Cooper's plant in Tupelo, as well as former workers at Cooper's closed plant in Albany, Ga., have helped fill in at the Findlay plant.
Here's a brief Cooper statement about the new deal:
Both the company and the union are pleased to have reached an agreement and are looking forward to the Findlay plant employees returning to work. While enormous time and effort was involved in reaching this labor agreement, leaders from the company and the union share a belief that the new contract will enhance the competitiveness of Cooper’s Findlay tire plant through improvements in productivity.
An orderly return-to-work plan will be communicated before the end of the week.
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Reports are not everyone's happy with the deal, but among the contract items is that workers get a five-tiered pay system and will have to pay 15 percent more for healthcare.
Also, employees who were hired before Feb. 1 of this year keep their six weeks of vacation; those hired after Feb. 1 will be capped at five weeks.
The Findlay deal comes on the heels of the Texarkana plant agreeing to a new contract last month, as Findlay's fleet truck drivers agreeing to a deal last week.
We've tried to find out if there are or have been contract talks in Tupelo, but Cooper officials have not returned calls or emails.