WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 135 President Josh Hall (on the left) and USW District 4 Staff Representative Jim Briggs stand outside the Union Hall - located down the road from the Sumitomo Tire Plant in Tonawanda, just outside Buffalo. The two USW Officials sat down with WNYLaborToday.com to discuss what the Union amazingly accomplished for its 1,200 Members who lost their jobs in November (2024) after the Japanese-headquartered company announced it was shutting its Western New York Facility - without notice.  (WNYLaborToday.com Photos & File Photos)

(TONAWANDA, NEW YORK) – The next time someone asks, “What can a Union do for you?” - tell them to talk to any one of the 1,200 Members represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Local 135 who were employed at what was once the Sumitomo Tire Plant in Tonawanda, which was abruptly closed by its Japanese owners without any kind of warning in November (2024).

They’ll more than likely tell you about an amazing settlement that provided them with a full year’s salary and a stellar benefits package that they otherwise would not have gotten if they were not represented by a Labor Union.

And by the way, also ask them about a salaried Sumitomo Employee in Tonawanda who watched what the USW did for their Members and was so impressed that he himself became a Union Member.

“We were ‘all devastated’ by this closure, ‘but we wanted to make sure no’ Union-represented Employee ‘left here without something.’ ‘Our obligation was to our Membership,’” USW District 4 Representative Jim Briggs told WNYLaborToday.com during a sit-down interview with USW Local 135 President John Hall.

When the dust cleared, USW Members employed at the Western New York Facility - having worked there anywhere from 35 years to six months, wound up receiving a full year’s pay to be paid out as if they worked all of 2025, medical benefits (including eye care and dental) through January 2026 and a $50,000 life insurance policy through May 2027, Hall said.

Depending upon the length of years worked, those salaries paid by Sumitomo ranged from $87,000 to more than $100,000.

Sumitomo/USW Retirees’ pensions were also protected and fully paid.

“It was ‘devastating, there is no other way to put it,’” said Hall, who’d worked at the Sumitomo Plant for 25 years and served as the Local’s Vice President for nine years before becoming President in May 2024.

“It was a ‘tough road’ (negotiating a final deal),” he continued. “We had to put out information (to the Members) ‘while finding out (while the USW was learning more) to alleviate doubt.’ ‘At least we were giving them answers.’ ‘I’m still upset (by the way the closing was handled by Sumitomo), but we built a bridge to get to the next thing.’  ‘We’re happy with the outcome’.  ‘It was better than most’ (other plant closings). ‘It was a shitty situation, but we did a pretty good job.’”

No one saw anything bad coming back in early 2021 when Sumitomo Rubber USA announced it was investing $122 million into its Buffalo-area Auto and Motorcycle Tire Making Plant, which had the USW anticipating additional hires in the months and years to come.

Back in 2021, the starting wage was $20.65 an hour, with great benefits, USW Officials said.

USW-represented Production Staff at the plant made $32 an hour, while Skilled Trades made $37 an hour. 

And - at that time, the average yearly wage and benefit package was around $80,000.

In August 2021, the USW Membership ratified a new contract that was eventually set to expire in December 2025, which USW Officials said “guaranteed” Sumitomo moving forward on its announced $122 million expansion.

But things changed.

Once the company made its closure announcement, metal fencing went up around the plant and a security force was deployed, keeping anyone from entering unless given approval.

“They ‘turned it into a fortress,’” Briggs said. “‘They should have been up front and honest.’”

It didn’t make things easier since Sumitomo “was a foreign company” and that the Tonawanda Plant was their only site in the U.S.

But it was the Sumitomo Workforce who worked through the COVID-19 Pandemic, deemed Essential Workers who’d put their health on the line to keep things running, even having to agree to working mandatory overtime.

They deserved better, Briggs and Hall said.

“(The Workers) ‘wanted to keep the company’s success (going) and we made sure we got the best we could,’” Briggs added. “‘Never once was it anything but the Local always (focusing on the needs of) the Membership.’  ‘We needed to get to the spot where our Members needed to be, and we figured out our strength came from our ability to put pressure on the company to get (the Members) where they needed to be.’ ‘We used the strength of our Union.’ ‘We reached out to (USW District 4 Director) Dave Wasiura and our National Headquarters, and to our Elected Officials.’  The company had received tax breaks so we contacted our Town, County, State and Federally-elected Representatives and the Governor’s Office.  We had conversations ‘where all felt the company had to be fair’ (to its Workforce) - and ‘some of our strength came from those relationships.’”

With the closing announcement coming just before Thanksgiving (and the Christmas Holidays for that matter), the Sumitomo Union Workforce received an outpouring of support from other Labor Unions across the region who donated everything from turkeys to toys to gift cards to help their Union Brothers and Sisters in need.

Job Fairs were also held by local companies and public entities in an effort to find jobs for the hundreds of Workers who were staring at the unemployment line.

To date, about 70% of the Sumitomo/USW Workforce has found employment elsewhere, Hall told WNYLaborToday.com. 

Several USW-represented businesses and plants in the area, as well as United Auto Workers (UAW)-represented/General Motors sites, have taken some in.

Meanwhile, a Task Force was also created by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz in an effort to help find a new employer to revive the sprawling Sumitomo facility in some way, shape or form in the future. 

It’s no secret the Town of Tonawanda, Erie County and Western New York took a big financial hit too with the loss of property and school taxes, not to mention the negative trickle-down impact the closing had on a variety of small businesses throughout the area.

“They’re ‘doing a great job,’” said Briggs, who along with Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President Denise Abbott sit on the Task Force, said of the effort.

“‘No disrespect - but we want it redeveloped so it has economic value close to Sumitomo - not for a home for another data center with a small’ workforce. ‘We’re very pleased that it has become a collaborative effort to get it back to close where it was before,’” he said.

Despite all that has happened, Briggs and Hall are still unhappy with the way Sumitomo handled the plant closing, so abruptly and without warning.

The Japanese Company failed to issue a 60-day notice to New York State through the U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers with 100 or more Employees to provide 60 calendar days advance written notice of planned closings and mass layoffs - which is meant to protect Workers, their families and their communities.

“We ‘broke production records a week before we were shut down,’” Hall said.

“They ‘pulled the rug out from under our Members and their families and they never really explained why’ (they shut the plant down).  It was ‘scumbaggery’ - and ‘we will not forget the attack on our Members,’” Briggs said. 

However, without a Union, the Workers employed at the plant would have realized a payout of only around $12,000 ($1,500 a week for a maximum of eight weeks) - far, far less than what the USW finally negotiated.

“‘It made all the difference being a Union Member,’” Hall said.

“Our Members ‘were given a chance to survive where (Non-Union) Workers dealing with other plant closings are just put out there on the street,’” Briggs added.

That point was not lost on at least one salaried Employee at the Tonawanda Sumitomo Plant who watched what the USW was doing for its Membership.

“One person who was salaried in the plant ‘saw the difference and decided to go Union,’” Hall noted.