4,000 more autoworkers joining US strike
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
WASHINGTON, Oct 09 (AFP): Employees at US industrial automaker Mack Trucks voted down a labor agreement on Sunday and will join some 25,000 other United Auto Workers (UAW) members on strike, the union announced.
"UAW members at Mack Trucks have voted to REJECT a tentative agreement, and will STRIKE at 7 am on Monday," the union posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The post said that it would impact 4,000 employees at Mack, a maker of industrial vehicles which is headquartered in North Carolina, but has manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
"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," said UAW president Shawn Fain.
The Mack workers will be joining striking UAW members at the so-called "Big Three"-GM, Ford and Stellantis-who launched a targeted action on September 15 after failing to reach a new deal.
The targeted strike called for stoppages at a handful of plants, while leaving most of the union's 146,000 US hourly auto workers on the job.
After two weeks of expanding the strike to other plants, Fain on Friday said that the UAW would hold off for now, citing last-minute progress in talks.
With the dual earlier expansions of the strike the prior two Fridays, the total number of workers on strike at the Big Three stands at about 25,000.