Manufacturing union: Giti Tire must ‘honor promises to Chester County’ after layoffs
Giti Tire in Chester has misused federal funds and betrayed people in Chester County, the United Steelworkers allege in a recent press release.
The allegations
The company received an estimated $10 million from federal pandemic programs intended for small businesses — despite it being a global conglomerate — and then failed to retain its workforce as promised, the union said, citing data in a report by Americans for Financial Reform.
Americans for Financial Reform is a nonprofit group that focuses on financial reform in the United States.
Giti’s website says the company employs 33,000 workers worldwide.
The report says the company was able to qualify as a small business due to the size of the Chester factory, which employed about 700 people before the pandemic began.
“The company betrayed the public trust long before COVID-19,” Daniel Fillipo, a representative for the steelworkers union said.
The union is demanding that “the corporation begin honoring its promises to the people of Chester County, South Carolina.” The United Steelworkers, or USW, is a union that represents workers in several industries, which includes rubber and tire manufacturing.
The Giti factory shut down temporarily in April, but reopened in May.
Despite receiving Pandemic Protection Program funds, approximately 100 workers remain laid off, the press release said.
“Giti promised it would use the PPP loans to retain 500 workers, but most of the factory workers lost their jobs for about one month and many still did not have their jobs back 10 months after the initial plant shutdown,” the report says.
Wednesday afternoon, USW representative Joe Smydo said Giti has not made contact with the union and there is no update at this time.
Giti moved to Chester in 2017 to the praise of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who said the plant would be a “game-changer.”
Giti Tire officials told The Herald in 2017 that the factory would hire an estimated 1,700 workers; Executive Chairman Enki Tan said it could be as high as 5,000.
Fillipo says Giti “never came close to that number.”
Documents of the agreement show that Chester County agreed to give Giti tax breaks in exchange for job creation. USW says Giti is reaping the benefits without fulfilling its commitments.
“It’s time for Giti to begin acting responsibly,” Flippo said. “That means not only creating the jobs it promised, but paying family-sustaining wages and giving back to the community.”
Giti responds
David Shelton, director of industry relations at Giti, gave The Herald a statement Wednesday afternoon.
He argued that Giti qualified to receive the federal loans, which came from the Payroll Protection Program (or PPP).
“From the largest airlines to the smallest coffee shops, the global pandemic greatly impacted businesses of all sizes. Giti Tire fully qualified for the PPP support. And those funds allowed us to bring back our employees starting in May 2020, much sooner than would have been possible without the PPP money,” Shelton said.
He said all furloughed employees were offered a job to return to work by August 2020.
“Many of these employees rejoined us; some employees voluntarily declined,” he said.
“We are disappointed to see outside third party organizations make inaccurate allegations during this time of a national crisis,” he said. “Giti Tire received economic development incentives to locate our first North American manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Our $560 million investment has generated more than currently 500 jobs right now, and with a goal to fulfill the job creation requirements by 2024.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 1:37 PM.
