Striking United Auto Workers at Mack Trucks will vote again next week on the company’s last, best and final offer of a master contract, essentially unchanged from the deal workers rejected.
Mack told the union that the 20% compound wage increases offered over five years was its final offer in a new master agreement. The sides agreed on new terms specific to four local agreements during the latest round of negotiations.
About 3,900 workers in Pennsylvania, Florida and Maryland rejected that offer by 73% in voting on Oct. 8. Workers will vote for a second time on Nov. 15 and 16 depending on location.
Mack’s main assembly plant near Allentown, Pennsylvania, has been idle since the walkout began Oct. 9. Workers at five other Volvo Group facilities, including an engine plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, also are on strike. Mack is part of Volvo Group North America.
Strike has minimal impact on Volvo Trucks operations
Unlike a UAW strike at Mack four years ago, production continued largely unaffected at the Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) plant in Dublin, Virginia. VTNA took one day of strike-related downtime on Oct. 30.
A separate six-year master agreement reached in 2021 following a five-week UAW strike governs the VTNA New River Valley complex..
“The tentative agreement employees will vote on includes the strong wage and benefit package the company offered at the master contract level and tentatively agreed to by the parties on Oct. 1, as well as a number of revised terms negotiated with the UAW on local agreements impacting LVO [Lehigh Valley Operations], Hagerstown, Baltimore and Jacksonville,” Mack said in a statement Wednesday.
About 45% of the total workforce is in progression, meaning they started at a lower wage and would grow into the top rate across five years, down from six years in the last contract. For that group of workers across all sites, the average wage increase over five years would be 55%, with an immediate wage increase of than 20%, Volvo Group spokesman John Mies said in an email Thursday.
Workers at Mack’s medium-duty truck plant in Roanoke, Virginia, are not represented by a union.
Mack says Oct. 1 offer is last, best and final
In a statement on its website, the UAW called for the revote after the company said the Oct. 1 agreement was its last, best and final offer. That deal was endorsed by local and international UAW leadership as a “record contract” for the heavy truck industry.
Mack has taken a hard line since the tentative agreement was rejected. It called new economic demands by the UAW unreasonable and said the union was turning its back on months of negotiations that led to the deal.
Tentative UAW deals with the Detroit Three automakers may have helped bring the Mack-UAW talks to a head. Autoworkers will get a compound 25% increase over 4 ½ years, signing bonuses and other gains.
At a Nov. 2 rally, union leaders at Mack said their demand for restoration of annual cost of living adjustments (COLA) mirrored those included in the automaker agreements.
The UAW gave up COLA in 2009 during the Great Recession to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, then part of Fiat, survive. The 2009 COLA formula is part of the master agreements being voted on by the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers.
It is unclear how Mack will proceed if the UAW rejects the master agreement a second time. UAW-represented workers at VTNA turned down three tentative agreements in 2021 before the company imposed the terms of its last offer.
Editor’s note: Updates with addition details of Mack Trucks’ contract offer up for revote by UAW-represented workers on Nov. 15-16.
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Kafantaris George
“They grew too big for their britches.”
Robert Dunbar
I have a new Mack Anthem on order put my deposit down and all but I’m thinking of walking away from it and buying another brand
Carlos 🇺🇸
For a supposedly Woke company it’s quite telling how they refuse to Pay their essential workers on par with the rest of the industry…✅This is a common practice from companies that are in this category in 2023.
Pay up Volvo+Mack this is getting ridiculous already ⚠️
J.Max
The union is screwing them on this.
Logi
UAW will win. They’re winning at the auto level.