By M.R. Kropko
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - When Steelworkers member John Shotkoski tells people he has had a long career in the tire and rubber industry, he sometimes gets confused looks.

Shotkoski considers being a Steelworker at Goodyear, the world's biggest tire company, a natural fit. His former union, the United Rubber Workers, merged with the United Steelworkers of America eight years ago.

The Pittsburgh-based union is rebuilding its foothold in a consolidating steel industry, such as in Cleveland, where International Steel Group was formed last year. Even so, Steelworkers increasingly do not make steel. Some make tires, rubber hoses or glass. Others are security guards or help teach preschoolers.

In 1995, the Akron, Ohio-based United Rubber Workers was in its 60th year when it was weakened by a 10-month strike against Bridgestone/Firestone. It agreed to merge into the larger, more financially secure Steelworkers union.

Among the Steelworkers' big challenges is Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear, the world's largest tire company, which wants to trim as much as $1.5 billion in costs by 2005 to shore up its North American tire operations.

The union's contract expired April 19 but had been extended for 14 plants in Ohio and 10 other states.

The Steelworkers' Goodyear/Kelly-Springfield/Dunlop bargaining committee negotiates for about 20,000 active members and is aiming for a contract that could be applied to other tire companies.

Basic steel is still the USWA's biggest employer, with about 106,000 workers, followed by rubber and plastics, with 70,600.

Teamsters members that include truckers and warehouse workers, also include those who work in public service, dairies, breweries, bakeries, airlines and the film industry.

United Auto Workers members who don't make cars or trucks may work for small manufacturers, state and local governments, universities, hospitals and nonprofits.

"The way labor unions are branching out, no one should be surprised if a nurse is in the same union as a steel worker or a college graduate student is in the same union as an auto worker," said Greg Tarpinian of the Washington-based Labor Research Association.