Mack employees go on strike after rejecting tentative agreement

Nearly 4,000 Mack Trucks workers are on strike after voting down a tentative agreement between the truck maker and their United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

Facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida are affected.

Seventy-three percent of members voted against the tentative agreement.

“The members have spoken, and as the highest authority in our union, they have the final word,” Shawn Fain, UAW president and director UAW heavy truck department said in the strike notification.

Negotiations have been ongoing for the last three months, he added.

“Many topics remain at issue, including: wage increases, cost of living allowances [COLA], job security, wage progression, skilled trades, shift premium, holiday schedules, work schedules, health and safety, seniority, pension, 401(k), healthcare and prescription drug coverage, and overtime.”

“We are surprised and disappointed that the UAW has chosen to strike, which we feel is unnecessary,” said Mack president Stephen Roy. “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. 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 Trucks is part of the only heavy-truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its trucks and engines for the North American market here in the United States, and continues to compete against products built in lower-cost countries. We have invested more than US$435 million in our plants and logistics network over the last 10 years, and are now in the process of investing more than US$1 billion in new Mack products.”

The tentative agreement, voted down by 73% of members, included a 10% wage increase in year one for all employees and compounded 20% increase over five years with guarantees that health insurance premiums would not increase over the term of the contract.