Mack, UAW End Latest Labor Talks With No Deal
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Negotiations between Mack Trucks and the United Auto Workers union over a labor agreement ended Oct. 26 with no new master contract in place, the Volvo Group subsidiary said.
No further talks are scheduled, Mack Trucks said in a late Oct. 26 statement. A UAW representative did not respond to requests from Transport Topics for comment.
The company and union were able to reach tentative agreements on four local agreements that were not ratified by UAW members Oct. 8, Mack Trucks said. However, the truck maker said the union’s economic demands when it comes to a master contract “continue to be unrealistic.” Talks restarted Oct. 23 and carried on through Oct. 26.
UAW-affiliated employees at five Mack Trucks facilities — including the Lehigh Valley Operations in Macungie, Pa., and Hagerstown Powertrain Operations in Maryland — walked out Oct. 9 after 73% voted down a potential deal Oct. 8.
Before the latest talks, the two sides met Oct. 19 for the first time since the strike began. They were much further apart in their positions than when a tentative agreement was reached Oct. 1, blasting one another publicly. Mack Trucks said the union presented the company with “a surprising new list of unreasonable economic demands, seemingly returning to day one of negotiations, and ignoring three months of good-faith bargaining between the parties.”
Fain
UAW President Shawn Fain said in a Facebook livestream late Oct. 20: “The company basically said they wanted to rearrange the deck chairs and try to get a revote.”
“The companies are making billions, and they’re just not sharing it with the workforce,” said UAW 677 President Scott Wolf in a video accompanying the livestream.
UAW Locals 171, 677, 1247, 2301 and 2420 in UAW Region 8 and Region 9 represent workers in Macungie and Middletown, Pa., Hagerstown and Baltimore, Md., and Jacksonville, Fla.
Mack Trucks said it stands by the economic terms of an Oct. 1 tentative agreement with the union.
Under that deal, unionized employees would see an average wage increase over five years of 36%, with an average immediate wage increase for all covered employees of nearly 15%, the company said. For employees not earning the top rate, the average increase over five years would be 55%, and the average immediate wage increase would be more than 20%.
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