Goodyear received a lesson in equality recently and it not only made the news, but it angered President Trump. An employee at the company recently said that the tire company’s new policy does not resemble equality at all and a picture was taken from a presentation has been making the rounds on social media to prove it.

The picture shows a “Zero Tolerance” policy that outlines that wearing “MAGA”, “Blue Lives Matter,” and “All Lives Matter” attire, as well as other political slogan or affiliation attire, is not permitted, which is a blatantly unconstitutional as far as freedom of speech goes. The picture went viral and even caused President Trump to call a boycott for the tire company. Does this mean that Goodyear could be going out of business?

Goodyear issued a response

According to a report from WIBW, the slide was “presented at the Topeka plant by an area manager and says the slide came from their corporate office out of Akron, Ohio.” After the controversial photo went viral, Goodyear quickly released a response that stated that the slide in the presentation was “not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate, nor was it part of the diversity training class.” The release also goes on to state that the tire company “has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination” and that it supports “both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

And while we can believe that Goodyear is true to its word when it comes to equality and anyone can debate whether or not the presentation slide came from corporate or not, that didn’t stop President Trump from giving his two cents. The President tweeted “Don’t buy Goodyear tires! – They announced a ban on MAGA hats! Buy better tires for far less! (This is what Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play at the same game, and we have to start playing it now!)”

It’s easy to point to politics (especially during an election year), however, the recent situation shows that there could be an additional nail in the coffin for Goodyear. Zero Hedge was quick to point out that in addition to the company’s stock dropping 4% the day that the picture went viral, the company also currently only has 63,000 employees, which is about half of what it had in 1990.

Equality and politics aren’t the only issues that Goodyear has had

While the question of equality backed by political viewpoints and Presidential backlash could be enough to deal a massive blow to the financial stability of a large corporation like Goodyear, a defective product could also be to blame for its continual downfall. Jalopnik issued a series of reports back in 2018 highlighting a defective Goodyear RV tire that was responsible for “nine deaths, dozens of injuries, and serious crashes,” which the company tried to cover up.

The tire in question was the Goodyear G159, which the company sold to RV manufacturers “despite knowing it wasn’t safe for motorhomes.” An employee of Goodyear eventually testified that the company knew that there was a serious issue when the tire was used on RVs, however, he was later stopped by the company from giving any further information as the cases against them was settled in court and the employee’s disposition notes were apparently destroyed.

Is the writing on the wall?

The Goodyear tire company has been in business since 1898 and has manufactured and supplied tires for everything from bicycles and cars to airplanes and farming equipment, so to think that they may shut down instantly would be a little far-fetched. However, as the media spotlight has been shown on the company due to the recent allegations concerning its policies on equality, not to mention any previous product issues, it’s easy to think that there could be an eventual downfall to the tire giant. However, we’ll just have to see what the future holds.