Goodyear SA MD Paul Gerrard was accompanied by bodyguards to a staff meeting in the Despatch town hall last week, as fury mounted in the Mandela Bay area over looming layoffs at the nearly 80-year-old Kariega plant.

More than 900 jobs are on the line, though not through any fault of Gerrard and his team, a company statement suggests. The reason is ostensibly a change in Goodyear’s “go-to-market” strategy in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (Emea) region — specifically a change in who makes what across the group’s French, German, Slovenian, Polish, Turkish and Kariega plants...

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