Goodyear Shuts Philippine Tire Plant

[FreakinDJ]

Goodyear Shuts Philippine Tire Plant

By KERRY GRACE BENN
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will close its tire plant in the Philippines and cut about 83% of its staff in the country as it continues to look for ways to cut costs amid weak demand and high costs at the facility.

The recession has slashed sales almost 30% as consumers and auto makers skipped purchases or cut orders. Goodyear, for its part, already has been doing some cost-cutting – in recent months, it has said it will cut production at various facilities, and it has shed more than 9,000 jobs since the middle of last year.

"Due to high costs compared to other plants in the region, tires produced in the Las Pinas plant are not competitive in the marketplace," said Pierre Cohade, president of the company's Asia-Pacific region. The facility opened in 1956.

The company said the closing will be completed by the end of the current quarter, and about 500 of the company's 600 employees in the Philippines will lose their jobs. It said sales and marketing operations in the country won't be affected.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124782707562957383.html

I guess $4-8 a day wages are not cheap enough in this Globalist/Free Trade Economy

So much for the "Race to the Bottom"