Goodyear Tire Chief Executive Rich Kramer said Thursday that the company had made its policy clear to employees wearing clothing that supports law enforcement after dealing with a boycott of President Trump.
The Republican president, who is seeking a second term, told reporters on Wednesday that he would swap the Goodyear tires on his presidential limousine if there was an alternative.
Goodyear on Thursday said it had a years-long policy of asking employees to abstain from workplace expressions of support for any political candidate.
Trump accused the Ohio company of “playing politics” by banning workers from favoring the “Make America Great Again” caps by his supporters.
“DO NOT BUY GOODYEAR TAPES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS,” he wrote on Twitter Wednesday, referring to his slogan “Make America Great Again” often emblazoned on baseball caps.
Trump said it was “disgraceful” that the company would prevent employees from wearing clothing that supports the “Blue Lives Matter” movement that enforces law while allowing support for other causes.
Goodyear said a widely circulated image by a plant employee that sparked the controversy was not made or disseminated by the company’s business group.
The image spelled out appropriate and indecent displays, with ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride’ considered acceptable, while ‘Blue Lives Matter’ and ‘MAGA Attire’ were not.
Kramer said Goodyear “strongly supports” law enforcement and notes that it has supplied tires to police and fire trucks for more than 100 years. “That relationship is fundamental to our business,” Kramer employees wrote Thursday. “Goodyear has always supported both law enforcement and equal justice.”
Shares in Goodyear fell as much as 6 percent after Trump’s tweet on Wednesday, but pared some losses to close 2.4 percent. Goodyear shares fell 0.4 percent to $ 9.46 on Thursday.
The White House had no comment on Goodyear’s new statement, but White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow had earlier defended the call for the boycott, saying Goodyear needed to change its workplace policy to allow political speech.
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