Steelworkers stage Goodyear protests
WASHINGTON (PAI) - The Steel Workers are using protests to highlight their dispute with tiremaker Goodyear, which is trying to strip the company's 30,000 retirees and their 15,000 dependents of health insurance and break the union, too, USW President Leo Gerard told the AFL-CIO Organizing Summit on Dec. 9.

The United Steelworkers this month initiated protests and leafletting outside 168 retail tire stores nationwide.

The company forced its 15,000 USW members to strike on Oct. 5, walking out of 15 U.S. plants.

In their agreement three years ago with a company "then on the brink of collapse," as Gerard put it, Goodyear was allowed to cut costs by closing some U.S. plants and cutting wages. But it also agreed to card-check recognition and company neutrality in organizing drives.

Since it returned to profitability, Goodyear has invested millions of dollars in a new plant in low-wage China and its latest demands include more plant closures in the U.S. It also gave executives multi-million-dollar salaries and bonuses. Now Goodyear demands retiree health care cuts and union-busting measures. Gerard said it did so because it judged the political climate ripe for that - before the November election.
"This has to be a fight for all. This has to show the Wall Street, Gucci-shoed, latte-drinking, coupon-clipping, limo-driving, rotten bastards that we're not going to take it any more," Gerard declared.

One forecaster sees recession in 2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Weakness in the housing market is likely to push the economy into a recession next year, according to a forecast by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an independent, nonpartisan think tank

"Recession Looms for the U.S. Economy in 2007," by economist Dean Baker, predicts that the economic recovery that began in November 2001 will come to an end in 2007.

"This recovery has been fueled by a housing bubble, just as the late 90s cycle was fueled by a stock bubble," said Baker. "Now that the housing market has weakened, Americans are looking at a recession in 2007." The study predicts residential construction will drop 12 percent in 2007.

Baker expects that the weakness from the housing market, which is already spreading over to other sectors of the economy, will have an even larger impact in 2007 as consumers lose the ability to borrow against dwindling home equity. With weak consumer demand dampening investment, the economy is likely to shrink by close to 1 percentage point over the course of the year, he said.