BY DAVID SHEPARDSON AND JAN WOLFE
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for a boycott of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co <GT.O> in response to a company policy that has deemed political attire including that of the Trump campaign unacceptable for the workplace.
“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS,” the Republican president, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, wrote on Twitter, referring to his slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Shares in Goodyear, the largest tire company in North America, fell 4% following Trump’s Twitter post.
“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any form of harassment or discrimination,” a statement posted on the company’s official Twitter account said.
To enforce that policy, Goodyear said, it asks employees to refrain from “workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equality issues.”
Last year, Goodyear had nearly $15 billion in revenue, the bulk coming from sales of tires, according to regulatory filings. Goodyear is the largest provider of tires to new vehicles in the United States. Goodyear brand tires were on 24% of new vehicles in the United States in 2018, according to Tire Business, an industry publication.
The White House declined to comment on whether Trump was calling for Americans to stop buying new vehicles with Goodyear tires.
Trump’s tweet followed a news report by WIBW, a local CBS affiliate television station in Kansas, about a Goodyear training session from the company’s Ohio corporate headquarters about political attire presented at a Goodyear plant in Topeka.
