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UAW, Mack Trucks Reach Tentative Deal to Avoid Strike

Mack Trucks confirmed the deal on Monday after the UAW’s announcement just before midnight Sunday…reports Asian Lite News

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has reached a tentative five-year contract agreement with Mack Trucks that covers about 4,000 workers in the US states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida amid the ongoing strike.

Mack Trucks confirmed the deal on Monday after the UAW’s announcement just before midnight Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The temporary agreement must still be ratified by the UAW.

“The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families,” said Mack President Stephen Roy in a statement.

“At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products,” he added.

The UAW said that more details would become available as members review the tentative deal with Mack, one of North America’s largest manufacturers of medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, proprietary engines, and transmissions, according to its official website.

Founded in 1900, Mack Trucks was purchased by Volvo Group in 2000.

Meanwhile, the UAW’s strike against the Big Three US automakers has entered the 18th day.

So far, about 25,300 out of some 146,000 workersrepresented by the UAW have been on strike across the country.

The tentative agreement showed the union’s willingness to reach an agreement on its ambitious bargaining demands, CNN reported.

If it had gone on strike, it would have been another drain on the resources in the union’s strike fund, which stood at $825 million heading into the work stoppage at the other three automakers.

There are now more than 25,000 UAW members on strike at the three companies after the union expanded its targeted strike to two more assembly plants on Friday. Each striker is receiving $500 in strike benefits, CNN reported.

The union is also paying the same benefits to about 3,000 members who have been laid off by the companies because their work had been disrupted during the strike. That means nearly a $14 million a week drain on the fund, it was reported.

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UAW adds GM, Ford SUV plants to strike

During a Facebook live on Friday, Fain told workersthat negotiations haven’t broken down but Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress….reports Asian Lite News

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is expanding its strike against the ‘Big Three’ US automakers to General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Company SUV plants, the union’s President Shawn Fain announced on the 15th day of the strike.

During a Facebook live on Friday, Fain told workersthat negotiations haven’t broken down but Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress.

“Sadly, despite our willingness to bargain, Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the table,” Fain said.

More than 7,000 workers at the GM plant in Delta Township in Lansing, Michigan, and the Chicago Ford assembly plant in Illinois began their strike at noon on Friday.

The GM plant has more than 2,800 employees making large crossover SUVs such as Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse, while the Ford plant has 5,700 hourly workers making Ford Explorer and Explorer police interceptors, as well as the Lincoln Aviator SUV.

With these additional members joining in the strike, the total number of striking UAW members across all three automakers would reach over 25,000.

Stellantis NV is spared of the strike expansion this time following progress made in negotiations, Fain said on Friday.

Last week, the UAW spared Ford from an expansion of the strike, saying it had made progress at the bargaining table with the automaker.

UAW announced strike at three select factories of Ford, GM and Stellantis on September 14, after its contract with the Big Three expired.

It then spread the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers around the country on September 22, following a failure in making meaningful progress in new contract negotiations.

According to the latest updates from the company and the union, Ford has offered a 20 per cent wage increase over the four years of the contract, job security the UAW had sought, the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, an enhanced profit-sharing formula, the elimination of a tiered wage, the immediate conversion of temporary workers to permanent status, and cutting the time it takes for permanent full-time workers to reach the top of the wage scale from eight years to four.

GM and Stellantis have made similar wage offers.

The union initially demanded 46-per cent in compounded wage increase over four years and has since reduced its request to 36 per cent without compounding.

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UAW announces start of strike at Big Three automakers

UAW President Shawn Fain, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders attended the rally….reports Asian Lite News

Wearing red T-shirts, hundreds of United Auto Workers (UAW), the largest union in the United States, and their supporters gathered outside General Motors (GM) Co.’s headquarters in downtown Detroit after the union announced to begin a strike against all Big Three automakers.

UAW President Shawn Fain, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders attended the rally.

In the last 50 years, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth in this country, the Detroit News quoted Sanders as saying in his speech to the crowd, highlighting the rising salaries of the CEOs of the Big Three automakers.

“It is time for you to treat your employees with the respect and dignity they deserve,” Sanders said.

While Democratic lawmakers from Michigan issued statements Friday supporting the UAW, Republican lawmakers of Michigan urged automakers and autoworkers to come to an agreement to avoid further economic impact. They also blamed the strike on Democratic policies of accelerating electric vehicle production.

A Republican statement said the government has “signaled that it doesn’t care about UAW workers” by passing policies that are “forcing our country into a comply-or-die EV mandate that has already burned billions in American taxpayer dollars.”

Another statement said the government’s policies have “pushed automakers and autoworkers into a corner … This strike will have harmful effects on Michigan’s economy and families.”

In response to the UAW strike, U.S. President Joe Biden urged the Big Three automakers to “go further” in their offers to the UAW.

In a televised speech, Biden noted the massive profits made by automakers in recent years that “have not been shared fairly” with workers.

“The companies have made some significant offers. But I believe it should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW,” he said.

Acting labor secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling are heading to Detroit to “offer their full support” to both the union and the automakers.

“The UAW Stand Up Strike begins at all three of the Big Three,” the union said in a post on the social media platform X Thursday, covering a GM assembly plant in Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Ohio and a Ford plant in Michigan, and involving a combined 12,700 workers.

The first ever strike of all three at once in the union’s 88-year history came after it failed to clinch a deal on a new contract by a deadline on Thursday.

“This is our generation’s defining moment,” Fain told union members at a Facebook Live event on Thursday night. “The money is there, the cause is righteous, the world is watching.”

The union had reportedly been negotiating with all three automakers simultaneously, in a break from previous rounds of contract talks, for significantly higher pay and new benefits.

Particularly, the UAW called for protections for workers with traditional auto jobs as companies increasingly invest in EV production.

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