United Auto Workers union members at Mack Trucks went on strike Monday after voting down a tentative five-year contract agreement.
“After voting by 73% to reject a tentative agreement, nearly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida walked out on strike at 7 a.m. on Monday, October 9,” the UAW posted Monday on social media.
The Mack Trucks workers join other UAW members whose strike against the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford and Stellantis—began at midnight September 15 when contract agreements to cover the union’s 145,000 members could not be reached. The addition of the Mack Trucks workers brings the total number of union members currently on strike to 30,000 across 22 states, according to the UAW.
On Friday, UAW president Shawn Fain announced a partial agreement with GM to bring all General Motors’ electric vehicle (EV) battery plants under the union’s national master agreement, but he added that negotiators were continuing work to secure deals on other sticking points, including wage increases and retirement security.
The tentative agreement with Mack Trucks owner Volvo included a 10% general wage increase in year one for all employees and a guarantee of no increases in health insurance premiums through the term of the contract, according to a company statement.
Mack president Stephen Roy said in an email that he was “surprised and disappointed” by the strike announcement, though he added that his company was “committed to the collective bargaining process, and remain confident that we will be able to arrive at an agreement that delivers competitive wages and benefits for our employees and their families, while safeguarding our future as a competitive company and stable long-term employer.”
The UAW’s Fain, meanwhile, said that he was “inspired to see UAW members at Mack holding out for a better deal, and ready to stand up and walk off the job to win it.”
