CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – During the Chester County Council meeting Monday night, some community leaders addressing council about concerns they have with the company, Giti Tire in Richburg.
Maggie James along with William “Bump” Roddey with the Catawba Area Workers Rights Board, and members of United Steelworkers organization delivering a petition with more than five hundred signatures to council urging them to demand from Giti Tire its plan to create the more than 13 hundred jobs.
They added they are concerned that Giti Tire is not on track to creating the jobs it promised the community when it came to Richburg in 2014, saying it could be due to work conditions like “excessive mandatory overtime.”
These leaders say currently there are only about 589 employees at the site.
New County Administrator, Brian Hester says he did look over the Contract with Giti Tire and says the company is currently in compliance with its agreement with the county, saying it has until some point in 2024 to hire the remaining employees, adding if they do not meet their end of the deal there are financial repercussions based on tax breaks they were given.
Giti Tire did release a statement in a response to the claims saying, “Giti Tire is proud to be a part of Chester County and the local business community. More than 80% of our workers live in Chester County and the surrounding area. We take pride in providing hundreds of employees with well-paying careers in a safe and healthy work environment at our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Richburg. Third party outside groups continue to make misleading statements regarding our facility. Like other companies across the nation, the current labor market has presented challenges. However, we continue to hire and welcome qualified workers to explore the jobs that are available at gitiusa.com.”
When Giti announced it was coming to Chester County it planned to invest 560-million dollars and would being 1,700 jobs to the county.
