Volvo, Union Agree on Contract to End Seven-Week Strike
By Frederick Kiel, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
Volvo Trucks North America and the United Auto Workers said they reached a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract at Volvo’s Virginia heavy-duty truck assembly plant, where about 2,600 workers have been on strike since Feb. 1.
The union scheduled a March 15 vote on the proposed contract, UAW Local 2069 President Lester Hancock told Transport Topics, and the union workers would return to Volvo’s New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va. as early as March 17.
“I’ve been told that Volvo wants to reopen the plant as soon as possible,” Hancock said.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed. “I’m personally satisfied with the agreement, but it’s hard to say whether the local will approve it — but I think the majority will be satisfied,” Hancock said.
“Further comment about the proposed agreement is being withheld, pending ratification by UAW Local No. 2069,” Volvo said in a statement.
Volvo truck dealers said they were happy that the plant could soon begin producing its full complement of trucks again. After the plant was shut down completely at first, production later resumed at a reduced rate, with nonunion workers, the company acknowledged.
“The end of the strike will give us a big boost, so that we can get back to business as usual,” Larry Fenner, a Volvo truck salesman for 26 years at Twin Bridges Truck City, Davenport, Iowa, told TT.
“Unequivocally, the strike hurt us because we couldn’t get trucks,” Fenner said. “From our stock and from Volvo, we were able to meet orders through about the middle of February, but since then, it’s been tough.”
Fenner said Twin Bridges did not receive any cancellations or lose new orders, “but you have a critical situation when you have one customer who’s waiting for a truck that’ll be his only truck.”
Scott Davies, Volvo new truck sales manager for Harvey Truck Center, New Castle, Del., said that he expected more problems from the backlog of orders than he experienced during the strike.
“This strike didn’t cause us any problems while it was going on, but the five-week halt in assembling any trucks will certainly present challenges in the near term,” Davies told TT.
“All of the trucks that we had ordered for February and early March had been built before the strike began, and we were able to deliver them to customers with no problems,” Davies said. “We’re scratching our heads, wondering how we’re going to meet orders over the next 90 days.”
Fenner told TT that the plant had been operating on a reduced schedule during the strike by using white-collar workers, but its production was far below its usual output of 109 trucks a day.
Volvo spokesman John Mies told TT March 12, “We resumed limited production the week of Feb. 25, using about 300 people, which included all of the plant’s non-bargaining unit employees, some bargaining unit people who returned to work and some volunteers from other parts of the company.”
Mies said the plant turned out 39 vehicles the week of Feb. 25 and 63 trucks the week of March 3.
“We’re continuing production this week of March 10, but it’s too soon to say how many we’ll build,” Mies said. “On the day the strike started, our average daily production rate would have been 109 trucks — 73 Volvo and 36 Macks.”
Ron Remp, president of Wheeling Truck Center, Wheeling W.Va., and the Volvo representative on the board of the American Truck Dealers, said the strike hurt everyone.
“In a strike situation, everyone is a loser — Volvo, dealers, customers, the unemployed and everyone up and down the Volvo supply chain,” Remp told TT.
“I was pleased that Volvo was able to have limited production,” Remp added. “All that were built were sent on a first-come basis to customers who had ordered, and dealers agreed not to take any for their lots.”
Remp said that his dealership had not lost sales because of the strike, and he was pleased that Volvo had been able to retain its market share in heavy trucks of about 15% in the first two months of 2008, despite the strike.
VTNA assembles its Volvo VT, VN and VHD trucks, as well as Mack Trucks Inc.’s Pinnacle, its only over-the-road model. VTNA and Mack are both part of global truck manufacturer Volvo AB, which is based in Sweden.
This story appears in the March 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
Volvo Trucks North America and the United Auto Workers said they reached a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract at Volvo’s Virginia heavy-duty truck assembly plant, where about 2,600 workers have been on strike since Feb. 1.
The union scheduled a March 15 vote on the proposed contract, UAW Local 2069 President Lester Hancock told Transport Topics, and the union workers would return to Volvo’s New River Valley plant in Dublin, Va. as early as March 17.
“I’ve been told that Volvo wants to reopen the plant as soon as possible,” Hancock said.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed. “I’m personally satisfied with the agreement, but it’s hard to say whether the local will approve it — but I think the majority will be satisfied,” Hancock said.
“Further comment about the proposed agreement is being withheld, pending ratification by UAW Local No. 2069,” Volvo said in a statement.
Volvo truck dealers said they were happy that the plant could soon begin producing its full complement of trucks again. After the plant was shut down completely at first, production later resumed at a reduced rate, with nonunion workers, the company acknowledged.
“The end of the strike will give us a big boost, so that we can get back to business as usual,” Larry Fenner, a Volvo truck salesman for 26 years at Twin Bridges Truck City, Davenport, Iowa, told TT.
“Unequivocally, the strike hurt us because we couldn’t get trucks,” Fenner said. “From our stock and from Volvo, we were able to meet orders through about the middle of February, but since then, it’s been tough.”
Fenner said Twin Bridges did not receive any cancellations or lose new orders, “but you have a critical situation when you have one customer who’s waiting for a truck that’ll be his only truck.”
Scott Davies, Volvo new truck sales manager for Harvey Truck Center, New Castle, Del., said that he expected more problems from the backlog of orders than he experienced during the strike.
“This strike didn’t cause us any problems while it was going on, but the five-week halt in assembling any trucks will certainly present challenges in the near term,” Davies told TT.
“All of the trucks that we had ordered for February and early March had been built before the strike began, and we were able to deliver them to customers with no problems,” Davies said. “We’re scratching our heads, wondering how we’re going to meet orders over the next 90 days.”
Fenner told TT that the plant had been operating on a reduced schedule during the strike by using white-collar workers, but its production was far below its usual output of 109 trucks a day.
Volvo spokesman John Mies told TT March 12, “We resumed limited production the week of Feb. 25, using about 300 people, which included all of the plant’s non-bargaining unit employees, some bargaining unit people who returned to work and some volunteers from other parts of the company.”
Mies said the plant turned out 39 vehicles the week of Feb. 25 and 63 trucks the week of March 3.
“We’re continuing production this week of March 10, but it’s too soon to say how many we’ll build,” Mies said. “On the day the strike started, our average daily production rate would have been 109 trucks — 73 Volvo and 36 Macks.”
Ron Remp, president of Wheeling Truck Center, Wheeling W.Va., and the Volvo representative on the board of the American Truck Dealers, said the strike hurt everyone.
“In a strike situation, everyone is a loser — Volvo, dealers, customers, the unemployed and everyone up and down the Volvo supply chain,” Remp told TT.
“I was pleased that Volvo was able to have limited production,” Remp added. “All that were built were sent on a first-come basis to customers who had ordered, and dealers agreed not to take any for their lots.”
Remp said that his dealership had not lost sales because of the strike, and he was pleased that Volvo had been able to retain its market share in heavy trucks of about 15% in the first two months of 2008, despite the strike.
VTNA assembles its Volvo VT, VN and VHD trucks, as well as Mack Trucks Inc.’s Pinnacle, its only over-the-road model. VTNA and Mack are both part of global truck manufacturer Volvo AB, which is based in Sweden.
