UAW Strikes International Plants
More than 4,000 United Auto Workers employees of International Truck and Engine Corp. went on strike late Tuesday, alleging unfair labor practices, the UAW said.
Workers at 11 local unions in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Georgia began striking as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, the UAW said in a statement. It filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, the Associated Press reported.
International — which is set to release earnings statements going back several years on Thursday — said in a statement that it would provide uninterrupted delivery of products and services to its customers.
“We expect our customers to continue to receive their orders in a timely manner,” said Jeff Bowen, the company’s vice president of human resources.
For more than two years, International and the union have engaged in various periods of “early” negotiations attempting to reach agreement on changes that would improve the competitiveness of International’s UAW-represented facilities, the company said.
In June 2006, the company and UAW leadership reached a tentative agreement on new contracts, but 84% of the voting UAW membership rejected it, International said.
The two sides were in talks earlier this month, but the company said the union took a “break” from the talks in early October after several days of talks.
International is a unit of Navistar International Corp.
