Adelle Waldman
Plain Dealer Reporter

Citing progress in negotiations with its largest union, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. continued contract talks yesterday beyond a deadline it had set earlier in the week.

Goodyear had said that if it did not have an agreement with the United Steelworkers by yesterday afternoon, it would announce cost-cutting plans. Those plans were expected to include plant closings.

The Akron-based tiremaker has lost $1.3 billion in the last two years.

Yet, although no agreement had been reached by late in the afternoon, negotiations continued. Both sides said progress was being made.

The talks began in March but had hit a wall in July.

Chuck Sinclair, a Goodyear spokesman, characterized yesterday’s negotiations in Cincinnati as “serious” and “intense” and said the company will not walk out of the talks as long as they are productive.

Wayne Ranick, a union spokesman, said the company deadline did not trigger increased serious ness. “We’ve had a lot of nights when talks went late,” he said.

The Steelworkers represent about 16,000 of Goodyear’s 92,000 total employees.

The Steelworkers walked out on Goodyear for 17 days in 1997, costing the company $50 million.

The union is opposing increased costs to its members for worker health care and prescrip tion drug plans. It also wants a guarantee that the company will not close any of the 14 plants where it represents workers, Ranick said.

Sinclair declined to comment on the company’s position.

Goodyear is struggling with decreasing sales in its largest business, North American tires. It posted losses in seven of the last 11 quarters and in February terminated its quarterly dividend to save about $84 million a year.