Premises Description

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (founded 1898, headquartered Akron Ohio) is through the 20th century and today one of the largest U.S. and global tire manufacturers. Goodyear operated through the asbestos era a major network of U.S. tire and rubber plants and rubber-products operations:

  • Akron OH — historic flagship tire and rubber operations
  • Gadsden AL — tire plant
  • Topeka KS — tire plant
  • Lawton OK — tire plant
  • Danville VA — tire plant
  • Houston TX — tire plant (closed 2008)
  • Niagara Falls NY — chemical/specialty rubber operations
  • Beaumont TX — synthetic rubber plant
  • Bayport TX — petrochemical operations
  • Asheboro NC, Tyler TX, Statesville NC — additional U.S. plants

The Goodyear Beaumont TX synthetic rubber plant is of particular OBLF significance — Beaumont was a major Texas asbestos-litigation corridor (Provost & Umphrey referral source) and Goodyear’s Beaumont plant employed and contracted with the same Beaumont-Port Arthur trade-union workforce that worked the area’s refineries and shipyards.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Goodyear — as premises owner — exposed its URW (United Rubber Workers, today United Steelworkers) workforce and contractor pipefitters, insulators, boilermakers, and trade workers to extensive asbestos materials including pipe covering, gaskets and packing on rubber-processing equipment (Banbury mixers, mills, calenders, presses), and steam-system insulation.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has been named as a Premises Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Workers Exposed

  • URW / USW Local members at Akron, Gadsden, Topeka, Lawton, Danville, Houston, Beaumont, and other Goodyear plants
  • Refinery pipefitters and millwrights working Goodyear capital projects
  • Insulators (HFIAW Local members) on Goodyear construction and turnaround crews
  • Boilermakers (IBB Local members) at Goodyear plants
  • Construction-trade workforces on Goodyear EPC projects

If You Worked at a Goodyear Tire or Rubber Plant

If you worked at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company tire plant, synthetic rubber plant, or chemical operation during the asbestos era — as a Goodyear employee or as a dispatched contractor trade worker — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related illness, you may have legal rights.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956