The United Auto Workers (UAW) are striking at Mack Trucks’ facilities starting at 7:00 a.m. Monday after rejecting the company’s labor contract offer.
Around 4,000 UAW workers are walking off the job Monday at Mack Trucks after negotiations between the two parties failed to result in a deal, with 73% of workers voting against the tentative deal that was previously reached between the company and union leadership, according to a Sunday letter sent to Mack from the union that was posted on Twitter. UAW workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors continue their own partial strike that started in September and has expanded to a combined 43 locations across the country, with the union originally demanding a 46% wage increase and a 32-hour work week for the nearly five-year contract.
“I’m 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,” Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, said in the Twitter post.
The union listed a number of benefits that they are seeking to add or bolster for their new contract, including wage increases, cost of living allowances, job security, wage progression, holiday schedules, pensions, health care and prescription drug coverage and more, according to the letter.
“We are surprised and disappointed that the UAW has chosen to strike, which we feel is unnecessary,” Stephen Roy, president of Mack, said in a press release given to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “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 union and the company had previously come to a tentative agreement that included a 10% general wage increase in the first year of the five-year contract and a 20% compounded wage increase over the whole term, according to the Mack press release. The agreement also guaranteed that there would be no increases in health insurance premiums over the course of the contract.
The strike against Mack is just one of many strikes that have taken place by workers across the country this year, including from the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike since May, and SAG-AFTRA, who went on strike in July. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters narrowly avoided a strike for its 340,000 delivery drivers at the United Parcel Service after it reached a contract deal just days before the July 31 expiration date.
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