Q1. What announcement are you making today?

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNT) today announced that it has made a final decision to close its Oklahoma City tire plant.  The decision to close the plant was approved by the Board of Directors of BFNT and the Board of Directors of its parent company, Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc. on July 12, 2006.  Unfortunately, the recent discussions between BFNT and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union ("USW") have not yielded a solution to the problem that confronts the Oklahoma City tire plant: namely that the plant is not competitive in the global marketplace and is suffering substantial ongoing losses.  The effects of the closure will be negotiated with the USW.  BFNT will work with the union as well as local and state officials to help address the impact on the Oklahoma City teammates, their families and the community. 

Q2. Why?

Simply put, we are losing an enormous amount of money at our Oklahoma City plant, and we can’t sustain such losses without jeopardizing the health of the rest of our business. Tire production in the United States is facing difficult economic times.  There is fierce competition from low-cost producing countries, which makes it difficult for U.S.-based production facilities to manufacture tires at a profit. While competition is intense in all product segments, it is particularly so at the low-end of the market, where demand is also shrinking.  These are the kinds of tires this plant is equipped to make.  Bottom line: the tires the Oklahoma City plant can make are in a shrinking market segment and they are not profitable to make due to the plant’s cost structure. Even with substantial new capital investment to completely reconfigure and re-tool the plant to make different tires, the investment would be so substantial that we could not achieve an acceptable rate of return.

Q3. When will the plant shut down?
 
The plant will continue producing tires for several more months but will cease production by the end of the year.

Q4. How many employees work at the Oklahoma City plant?

We have 1,383 active teammates at the Oklahoma City facility:  1,200 hourly and 183 salaried.  In addition, we have 100 hourly and 50 salaried contract workers, as well as 69 inactive hourly and 6 inactive salaried teammates.

Q.5 Is this a union facility and if so, have you told the union about the situation?

The hourly teammates are represented by the USW.  On April 28, 2006, we provided the USW leadership with the required notice of the potential closure of the plant.  We then entered into negotiations regarding the future of the plant. Unfortunately during the course of those discussions neither the company nor the union could come up with a viable solution to stem the huge losses and make the plant globally competitive.  The final decision to close the plant was approved July 12, 2006 by the Boards of Directors of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC and Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.

Q.6 Does this mean the Dayton tire line is dead?

Absolutely not.  Dayton will continue to be an important associate brand tire line, and we will continue to produce a wide range of sizes and styles of Dayton brand passenger and light truck tires to meet the needs of consumers and our family channel dealers.

Q.7  What will be done to help the employees who are losing their jobs?

We will work with the union as well as state and local leaders to help address the impact on the Oklahoma City teammates, their families and the community.  The effects of the shut down on hourly teammates must be negotiated by BFNT and the USW.