Mack Trucks settles with UAW on longer agreement

Mack Trucks and the United Auto Workers tentatively agreed to a new five-year labor agreement. It is a year longer than the previous pact.

The longer agreement follows a six-year agreement between sibling Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) and the UAW. A five-week strike preceded that deal in 2021.

Mack is part of the Greensboro, North Carolina-based Volvo Group North America, which includes VTNA.

Most workers assemble Class 8 trucks at Mack’s Lower Macungie Township. The company’s Lehigh Valley Operations in Pennsylvania consist of the assembly plant and a remanufacturing operation in Middletown.

Other operations include parts distribution centers in Jacksonville, Florida, and Baltimore. A powertrain plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, builds engines for Volvo and Mack.

Will UAW get to organize a medium-duty truck plant in Virginia?

The deal early Monday came just as the four-year agreement reached after a 12-day strike in 2019 expired. The length of the agreement is the only detail known pending ratification voting by the 3,900 Mack workers in three states in coming days.

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

One issue to watch is whether the union bargained to organize Mack’s Roanoke Operations in Virginia, where the company began building medium-duty trucks in 2020.

Mack reentered the medium-duty market after settlement of the last UAW contract. The company expects to soon begin building a battery-electric version of the Class 6-7 MD Series. The company has not said where those trucks will be built. Mack builds the Class 8 LR electric at its main assembly plant in Pennsylvania.

Company and UAW mum on details pending ratification voting

Other than telling workers to report for work on Monday, the union website said only that more information would be available in coming days.

Local 677’s Facebook page offered no additional information other than a couple of posts from members questioning being ordered to keep working without knowing details of the tentative agreement. Twelve of 15 reactions on the Facebook page were “likes.”

Mack and Volvo are the only major heavy-duty truck makers that produce all their trucks for North America in the United States.

UAW-represented Mack Trucks workers near strike deadline

UAW ends strike at Volvo after split revote on latest offer

Volvo Trucks hit by first UAW strike since 2008

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