Cooper Tire in tentative deal with workers over merger

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co said it reached a tentative agreement with workers represented by United Steelworkers union, regarding its planned $2.5 billion sale to India's Apollo Tyres Ltd .

An arbitrator ruled in September that the sale could not close unless Apollo drew up a collective bargaining agreement with the union that represents workers at two Cooper plants.

The new labor deal agreed to on Wednesday is subject to review by Apollo, as well as ratification by the union's membership, Cooper said in a filing on Friday.

(Reporting by Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)