JACKSON, MI – For nearly a half-century, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. built tires in Jackson.
Millions of them.
The plant opened in 1937 amid great fanfare. And in its 47-year run before closing in early 1984, thousands of men and women worked there, the plant helped America triumph in World War II and the company contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the growth and improvement of life in Jackson County.
The demise of this once-great plant can be partially attributed to the June 3, 1983 explosion of a high-pressure water heater that brought all production to an end.
However, well before that explosion, it had become obvious the plant was living on borrowed time. Two years earlier, its manager, Ralph A. Stanford, had put the company's survival in Jackson squarely on the public agenda.
Stanford, a no-nonsense man, had served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in World War II. After the war he went back to his job with Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, and his career took him to several plants – including a 1970 stint in Jackson as production manager. In 1978, he returned to Jackson as plant manager.
Goodyear employees displaying some of the tires produced by the plant at Plant Manager Ralph Stanford's Sept. 1 presentation to the Jackson City Commission in 1981.
In the early summer of 1981, Goodyear won a major contract battle with the United Rubber Workers. Since the Jackson plant would have been closed if the vote had gone against the company, it seemed this was good news.
But as Citizen Patriot reporter Dan Spickler wrote on July 19 that year, "No matter how hard he is pressed, Stanford will not openly comment on the course the company has charted for the Jackson operation. He's leaving an airy, almost scary, mystery over the fate of the area's largest factory."
That mystery began fading on Aug. 8 when Spickler reported that Goodyear had called a meeting of state and local officials to discuss the future of its 1,500-employee Jackson plant. Invitations went out to 227 public officials, business leaders and others for an Aug. 20 meeting at Jackson's Sheraton Inn.
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That was the first of several public appearances by Stanford. On Aug. 26, he addressed more than 1,000 citizens at Jackson Community College's Potter Center. On Sept. 1, he addressed the Jackson City Commission. Finally, on Sept. 22, Stanford took Goodyear's case to the state Legislature.
His message in each forum was blunt, specific and even damning.
Goodyear was paying "a huge premium" for having a plant in Jackson, he said. He itemized $6.8 million in annual production costs the company was paying over and above what it was paying in its seven other U.S. plants.
Initial reactions were swift. Jackson Mayor O.B. Falls called the presentation "a bellyful of unhappy information." Jackson School Board President I. Donald Penson said, "I'm shocked by the figures."
Stanford's message, however, was tempered with good news. He said Jackson's plant ranked second in the system for output – usually between 15,000 and 20,000 tires daily. And at an average of $11.45 per hour, Jackson wages were in the middle range of all plants.
Jackson's big disadvantage, he said, was in "costs which vary with location." In that crucial category, Jackson was the "high-cost plant" in the Goodyear system.
There were desperate local attempts to address Goodyear's cost issues. City commissioners quickly assisted with one – the disposal of tires. URW Local President Gerald Emmons pledged the union would "do all in its power to keep Goodyear in Jackson."
As time passed, Stanford's message met increasing pushback. When he spoke to the Legislature at the invitation of state Rep. Michael J. Griffin, D-Jackson, the chambers were only half full. Some lawmakers appeared to sleep through the talk.
And State Rep. Perry Bullard, D-Ann Arbor, dismissed Stanford's talk as "a piece of corporate propaganda."
Lawmakers had received many questions from constituents about issues raised by Stanford and wanted answers. Stanford promised to respond, but told lawmakers the company wanted to "bow out at this point" from its public role.
In June 1982, Stanford was sent to a Goodyear plant in Virginia. His lower-profile successor was left to pare down the Jackson workforce. There were 1,500 Goodyear employees when Stanford went public with the company's issues. By spring 1983, there were only 600 left.
Then came the June explosion. Nine workers were injured – three of whom were hospitalized. By the time the plant closed its doors on Jan. 11, 1984, there were only about 300 employees remaining.
Tidbits
• At the time it left Jackson, Goodyear had a $40 million annual payroll here.
• Earl Smith was one of the nine Goodyear workers sent to Foote Hospital after the June 1983 explosion. He was 50 feet from the blast and all he recalls is the aftermath. "I got knocked down on the floor. The first thing I thought was, 'I'd better head for the outside.' I had my coveralls on, and there was blood." Smith's only injury was a cut to his elbow, which required four stitches. And that was the end of his Goodyear work in Jackson. He had started there in 1955. Three months after the explosion, he transferred to the Goodyear plant in Union City, Tenn. He retired from there in 1996 with 51 years of service and returned to Jackson.
• Joanne Stevens, who had started working in Goodyear's administrative offices in the 1950s, was in the specifications department during the plant's final months. She recalls this of the grim day of the explosion: "It had already happened when we arrived for work that morning. We had to be careful where we walked. Stuff was all over. If the plant manager's secretary had been sitting at her desk she would have been either seriously hurt or killed." She was transferred to Akron, Ohio, retired and returned to Jackson in 1988.
• At least two groups of Goodyear retirees continue regular meetings at restaurants in Jackson.