(The Center Square) – Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, headquartered in Ohio, is in conversation with the United Steelworkers union to close its North Carolina plant in Fayetteville next year.
The job loss will be about 1,700. Incentive packages funneled to the facility in the last 20 years are valued at an estimated $41 million, with another $40 million thwarted by a governor’s veto stamp.
“As the only remaining U.S.-based tire manufacturer, we are committed to U.S. manufacturing in today’s evolving market,” a company statement says. “This difficult action is necessary to strengthen Goodyear’s ability to compete in today’s marketplace and support the long-term health of the business.”
Goodyear earlier this month reported a $249 million net loss on $3.9 billion in net sales.
Fayetteville’s population has risen from about 208,000 in 2020 to nearly 212,000 in 2024, according to the Office of State Budget and Management. Cumberland County had a July 1 estimate of nearly 341,000, up from 338,000 in 2020. Goodyear is among the top 10 employers supplying jobs for each.
Threats to close the plant have existed for a decade or more, typically answered through incentives. The facility of 2.2 million square feet is on a 403-acre tract on Ramsey Street, its distinctive rooftop often used as a point of reference by aircraft in approach to Fort Bragg.
The plant opened Dec. 13, 1969, as Goodyear subsidiary Kelly-Springfield Tire Co. Peak operations were in 2004 at 65,000 tires a day, according to published reports.
Goodyear said it would protect 2,000 jobs following the 2019 awarding of a job maintenance and capital development fund grant that supported an upgrade and addition of manufacturing equipment. Terms from the state were for up to $3 million over 10 years, with the company responsible for $180 million in capital improvements at the half-century old site.
In February 2009, the Fayetteville City Council committed $1 million in incentives in return for Goodyear investing $200 million by 2012. Nearly 3,000 worked there at the time, and the agreement included maintaining at least a 2,000-member workforce.
Alongside the agreement was $30 million from North Carolina and $7 million from Cumberland County.
In 2007, when legal battles existed about using state money to lure new business to the state, House Bill 1761 included $40 million through the Job Development Investment Grant program for Goodyear to upgrade the plant.
The eighth veto in state history, from former two-term Democratic Gov. Michael Easley thwarted the will of a General Assembly with majorities of 31-19 Democrats in the Senate and 68-52 Democrats in the House of Representatives that delivered passage votes of 41-5 and 98-11, respectively.
