Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Phillip Ensler and former U.S. Senator and gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones traveled to Tuscaloosa together to blame President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) for the closure of the BF Goodrich tire plant, impacting approximately 1,200 employees.
“It is not high wages that are closing these plants. It's high tariffs. It's economic policies coming on a national level,” Ensler said before Jones added to the sentiment.
“Phil said something really important. It was not the Union wages that closed this plant, folks. It was not the Union. This was Trump tariffs, this was Tuberville tariffs,” Jones explained.
In a statement released days before the video, the company contradicted Jones and Ensler's statements, explaining that two of their plants, the Tuscaloosa plant and the Fort Wayne, Indiana plant, “operate well below their designed capacities, resulting in structural inefficiencies that cannot be sustained.”
"At the same time, BFGoodrich Tires faces intensifying competition in its core recreation/off-road market segment, even as the brand maintains a strong market share and remains the benchmark for performance in this category," the company said.
“Due to the size, footprint and infrastructure of the Fort Wayne factory, that site is better positioned to consolidate the capacity and meet future demands for the success of BFGoodrich Tires,” Terry Redmile, Michelin’s senior vice president for manufacturing operations in the Americas, said. “Unfortunately, we could not identify any feasible structure that would enable us to continue operating in Tuscaloosa while also supporting long-term value creation across our factories in North America.”
The company said that a gradual phase-out is scheduled to begin early next year, with all operations at the Tuscaloosa facility expected to conclude by year-end 2028. Michelin said no employee separations are anticipated in the immediate future as transition plans continue to be developed.
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