Support grows among Volvo, Mack Truck workers for joint fight against UAW-backed concessions
After a courageous two-week strike by thousands of workers at Volvo Truck’s New River Valley (NRV) Assembly plant in Virginia was abruptly shut down by the United Auto Workers union last weekend without a vote, hostility to the UAW-backed concessionary tentative agreement is mounting.
NRV workers confront a well-rehearsed UAW sabotage effort aimed at imposing yet another sellout contract designed to lower labor costs and boost company profits.
Volvo pickets (Source: Facebook/Local 2069)
After extending the previous contract for 30 days while ignoring a 96.8 percent strike authorization vote, allowing the company time to stockpile trucks, the UAW grudgingly allowed an “unfair labor practices” strike to begin on April 16, faced with the overwhelming sentiment of workers for a fight to substantially improve wages and working conditions. However, the union maintained complete silence on the status of negotiations both leading up to and during the course of the strike, working out plans with Volvo in backroom sessions to end the strike at the earliest opportunity and attempt to rush through the company-dictated agreement.