A lockout a the Cooper Tire plant in Findlay, OH, could last for weeks, but was a necessary management strategy to move the unions away from stalling contract talks so that their contract could align more closely with negotiations at a Cooper plant in Texarkana, AR. LRI president Phil Wilson was asked to comment:
“The main leverage of the union is disrupting Cooper’s production” through a strike, he said. By imposing a lockout, the company took the union’s trump card and in effect said: “You don’t have any cards left. Let’s do a deal,” Wilson said.
