By Angela Hatton
Union City, TN – Nearly two thousand workers will be out of work by the end of the year when the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant in Union City, Tennessee closes. Union City Mayor Terry Hailey says the plant's closure will be a big blow to northwest Tennessee and Fulton and Hickman counties in Kentucky. Local Goodyear spokesman Clint Smith says the decision to close was negotiated with the United Steel Workers union in 2009. Smith says employees will be eligible to receive a lump sum exit payment or they will be eligible for preferential hiring at another Goodyear plant. Mayor Hailey says Union City has many locations that can support large industrial plants. He says officials are actively marketing the area to corporations.