Phoebe Wall Howard and Kinsey Crowley,
Mon, October 9, 2023
Nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks facilities in three states walked out on Monday morning after voting down a tentative agreement Sunday night.
"I'm inspired to see UAW members at Mack holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it," UAW President Shawn Fain said via @UAW on X.
This latest contract negation with Mack Trucks, owned by Volvo Group, covers a five-year agreement, one year longer than the previous agreement. A letter issued by the UAW to Volvo's director of employee relations Holly Georgell said the union voted the tentative agreement down with a 73% 'no' vote.
"The members have spoken and as the highest authority in our union, they have the final word," said the letter, signed by Fain.
The tentative agreement included a 10% general wage increase, a 19% increase to general wages over five years, and a guarantee that healthcare premiums will not increase during the duration of the contract, according to UAW and Mack Trucks spokespersons.
“We are surprised and disappointed that the UAW has chosen to strike, which we feel is unnecessary,” said Mack Trucks President Stephen Roy in a statement released to USA TODAY. “We clearly demonstrated our commitment to good faith bargaining by arriving at a tentative agreement that was endorsed by both the International UAW and the UAW Mack Truck Council."
'Major' development: GM to put battery plants under master contract with union, UAW says
Where is the strike happening?
The 3,900 UAW members walked out from Mack Trucks facilities in the following locations:
Jacksonville, Florida
Macungie, Pennsylvania
Middletown, Pennsylvania
Hagerstown, Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Employees who build the heavy duty trucks exited their facilities in an "orderly manner after performing tasks necessary to prevent damage to the company's equipment or product" at 7 a.m. Monday, the according to UAW.
An estimated 4,000 UAW members rejected their tentative agreement with Mack Trucks, the union announced Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.
Why is UAW striking against Mack Trucks?
Fain said in the letter that the union has met with Mack Truck officials over three months to address issues of concern, and will be in contact with available dates and locations to reconvene bargaining. Issues of concern, the letter said, are:
Wage issues
Cost of living allowances
Job security
Holiday schedules
Work schedules
Pension
401(K)
Prescription drug coverage
Overtime
Experts: Shawn Fain's biting style is creating a moment, just like another UAW labor icon
UAW 'Stand Up Strike' against the Detroit Three
This strike comes at the same time the UAW has run a targeted national strike against Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis, known as the Detroit Three since mid-September.
Contract talks with those automakers failed at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023, and Fain released the list of demands the following day, as previously reported by USA TODAY. Those include:
Eliminating wage tiers.
◾ A 40% wage increase over the life of the contract. The 40% signifies the increase in CEO salaries.
◾ Restoring the cost-of-living allowance adjustments to counteract inflation.
◾ Defined benefit pension for all workers.
◾ The right to strike over plant closures.
◾ A reduced work week and more paid time off.
◾ Limiting the use of temporary workers.
◾ Increased benefits to current retirees.
Recent progress in the negotiations paused a strike expansion Friday, as reported by the Associated Press.
Monday's strike against Mack Trucks brings the total to 30,000 workers on strike across 22 states, UAW said.
UAW Local 602 members picket as part of the 'Stand Up Strike' Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, near Millett Highway and Creyts Road in Delta Township, Michigan.
History of strikes and negotiations between Mack Trucks and UAW
The UAW and Mack Trucks negotiators reached a tentative agreement for a five-year contract just before the contract scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1, according to UAW.
“The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families,” Mack President Stephen Roy said, according to the company announcement dated Oct. 2. “At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products.”
In 2019, the UAW contract with Mack Truck followed a national strike of approximately 3,500 workers that lasted nearly two weeks and called in the midst of the national strike of 46,000 workers against General Motors.
Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Eric D. Lawrence, Jamie L. LaReau, Lily Altavena, Susan Tompor
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UAW strike expands to Mack Trucks, members reject tentative agreement
Mon, October 9, 2023
DETROIT (AP) — Union workers at Mack Trucks went on strike Monday after voting down a five-year contract agreement that negotiators had reached with the company.
The United Auto Workers said 4,000 unionized workers walked out at 7 a.m., adding to labor turmoil in the industry that has ensnared all three big Detroit automakers.
With those workers joining picket lines, the total number of UAW members that are on strike now exceeds 30,000 across 22 states, the union said Monday.
Union President Shawn Fain said in a letter to Mack parent company Volvo Trucks that 73% of workers voted against the deal in results counted on Sunday.
The UAW represents Mack workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. Union leaders had reached a tentative agreement on the deal on Oct. 1.
UAW Locals 171, 677, 1247, 2301, and 2420 in UAW Region 8 and Region 9 represent workers at Mack Trucks in Macungie and Middletown, Pennsylvania; Hagerstown and Baltimore, Maryland; and Jacksonville, Florida.
The deal negotiators had reached with Mack just over a week ago included a 19% pay raise over the life of the contract with 10% upon ratification. There also was a $3,500 ratification bonus, no increase in weekly health care contributions, increased annual lump sum payments for retirees and a $1,000 annual 401(k) lump sum to offset health care costs for employees who don’t get health insurance after retirement.
Fain said in his letter to Volvo Trucks' head of labor relations that employees working early Monday would exit the factories after performing tasks needed to prevent damage to company equipment.
Fain wrote that UAW members and workers across the country are seeking their fair share in wages and benefits.
The company and union are still apart on work schedules, health and safety, pensions, health care, prescription drug coverage, overtime and other issues, he wrote.
The contract may have been sunk by high expectations Fain has set in bargaining with Detroit’s three automakers. In those talks, the UAW has asked for 36% raises over four years, while Ford has offered 23% and the other two firms are at 20%.
“I’m inspired to see UAW members at Mack Trucks holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it,” Fain said in a prepared statement. “The members have the final say, and it’s their solidarity and organization that will win a fair contract at Mack.”
Mack Trucks President Stephen Roy said in a statement Sunday night that the company is “surprised and disappointed” that the union chose to strike. The union, he wrote, called the tentative agreement a record for the heavy truck industry. “We trust that other stakeholders also appreciate that our market, business and competitive set are very different from those of the passenger car makers,” the statement said.
Mack, he wrote, is part of the only heavy truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its vehicles and engines for North America in the U.S., competing against trucks built in lower-cost countries.
The company is committed to collective bargaining and is confident both sides will reach a deal that delivers competitive wages and benefits while safeguarding the company’s future, the statement said.
The UAW went on strike at selected factories run by automakers General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis on Sept. 15. It started with one assembly plant for each company, then spread to 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Two additional assembly plants at Ford and GM were added later.
On Friday, the union decided not to expand the strikes to any more plants for the time being after GM agreed to bring its electric vehicle battery factories into the UAW’s national contract, assuring that they’ll be unionized. The union also reported progress with all three automakers.
Tom Krisher, The Associated Press
Alan Adler
Mon, October 9, 2023
A Socialist website and envy of what autoworkers in Detroit might get in their contract negotiations may have tanked the tentative agreement between Mack Trucks and the United Auto Workers.
How did the biggest contract offer Mack Trucks ever tendered its United Auto Workers-represented employees get trashed and result in a strike?
Two catalysts may be responsible.
One is the so-called rank-and-file committees, workers who claim socialism as their mantra. Through the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), they regularly attack union leaders at the local and international levels. They call them toadies for management who bring secretly negotiated, substandard contracts to members incentivized with a signing bonus.
The other is the ongoing UAW strike at the Detroit Three automakers. For the first time, the UAW simultaneously targeted all three companies — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. It has targeted specific plants to strike, so far avoiding hugely profitable pickup truck plants. About 17%, or 25,000, of 146,000 UAW members are currently on strike.
Watching the UAW strike in Detroit
Goaded into striking or not, Mack workers are watching the Detroit negotiations. They hope for a contract similar to what is eventually reached.
The UAW claims significant gains in negotiations since the autoworkers’ strike began Sept. 15. The union twice expanded the strike against specific companies. On Friday, it decided against another widening because GM conceded to extend the UAW master agreement to its battery plants. Several of those plants have yet to hire workers.
The union has expressed concern that electric vehicles (EVs) the companies are pursuing will threaten job security. EVs have fewer parts and require less assembly time than internal combustion engines.
Mack builds a small number of electric trucks at its plant in Lower Macungie in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. The company is planning an electric version of its medium-duty MD Series. Internal combustion engine versions of those trucks are built at a nonunion plant in Roanoke, Virginia.
Volvo Group workers at parts distribution centers in Jacksonville, Florida, and Baltimore are on strike. So is an engine plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, that makes powertrains for Volvo and Mack Trucks. Mack is a part of Volvo Group North America, the only truck maker that builds all its North American products in the U.S.
Watch now: In rejecting new contract, are Mack Truck workers hitching their hopes to Detroit Three negotiations?
UAW demands COLA increases and end of 2-tier wages
UAW President Shawn Fain has said Ford and Stellantis have agreed to restart a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) formula that the union conceded in 2009 during the Great Recession. The union also is determined to end dual-tier wages in which new workers are hired below the wage of existing workers. The UAW agreed to two-tier wages in 2007.
Neither COLA nor two-tier wages were addressed in the tentative agreement at Mack, which the WSWS has pointed out repeatedly.
“Inflation is up 22% in the last 3yrs. This contract we’re getting a 19% raise but over 5 yrs,” the WSWS posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The tentative agreement was rejected Sunday by 73% of workers who voted. The tentative local agreement for the Mack assembly plant would have added 30 minutes to the workday with workers earning an average of $3,000 more a year before master contract economics. The WSWS said that extra work should be paid at overtime rates.
“The UAW called our tentative agreement ‘a record contract for the Heavy Truck industry,’ and we trust that other stakeholders also appreciate that our market, business, and competitive set are very different from those of the passenger car makers,” Mack President Stephen Roy said in a news release.
The auto industry collectively builds millions of vehicles in the U.S. every year compared with trucking, which produces several hundred thousand vehicles annually. Both industries are cyclical. Automakers mostly sell to franchised dealers that target individual consumers. Truck manufacturers work directly with fleets and deliver products through dealers.
The Lehman factor
Mack worker Will Lehman, who ran against Fain for the UAW International presidency earlier this year, addressed workers at a contract review meeting on Saturday, calling for greater transparency in contract negotiations.
Lehman unsuccessfully sued to halt the runoff that Fain won over incumbent President Ray Curry in May. He denounced Fain for “acting like he stands with us” after having “tried to ram through a pay cut, sellout tentative agreement on the workers at Mack Trucks.”
“This is the kind of contract that gets negotiated behind closed doors,” Lehman told workers gathered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. “There needs to be full transparency to all the workers, and as far as the vote count goes that needs to be made transparent to the workers as well.”
Watch now: Will Lehman addresses Mack workers, urging defeat of tentative UAW agreement
Labor leaders urging passage of tentative agreements carry less weight among workers than they have historically. UAW workers at Mack sibling Volvo Truck North America (VTNA) rejected three tentative agreements in 2021 before Volvo put terms of its final offer into effect after a split vote on the third offer.
Now Mack appears to be following that play and castigating local bargainers and the company for trying to buy labor peace with a $3,500 signing bonus.
The WSWS accused Mack of seeking a five-year agreement so future bargaining would be out of sync with the expiration of automaker contracts that expire after four years. In 2019, Mack workers struck for 12 days while the UAW was on strike against GM. There’s no evidence the Mack settlement was influenced by the GM strike.
“It’s worker abuse”: Mack Trucks strikers speak out - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)
Vote NO on the UAW-Mack sellout contract! - World Socialist Web Site (wsws.org)
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