Volvo Workers to UAW: “We won’t accept another contract proposal cooked up behind our backs”
After overwhelmingly defeating a United Auto Workers-backed contract last Sunday, rank-and-file Volvo Truck workers in Virginia are stepping up their campaign to prevent the UAW from ramming through another sellout deal.
On May 16, workers voted by 91 percent to defeat the agreement, which included pay raises below the rate of inflation, a sharp increase in out-of-pocket medical costs and the continuation of the multi-tier wage system, which traps new hires and lower-seniority workers in a years-long cycle of inferior pay and benefits. The deal would have also introduced a 10-hour workday and continued cuts to retiree benefits.
Virginia Volvo workers repudiate UAW-backed contract: Now that we ve rejected this, we should be back on strike wsws.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wsws.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
UAW-Volvo contract “highlights” reveal attacks on wages, health care, work schedules
Vote “No” on UAW sellout agreement! Join the Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee!
On Saturday, May 15, at 1 p.m. Eastern, the WSWS will be holding an online meeting to discuss the latest developments in the struggle against the UAW-Volvo sellout agreement and the way forward for Volvo Truck
workers to organize a fight for higher wages, decent working conditions and the end of the tier system. Register to attend here.
On Friday, officials at United Auto Workers Local 2069 in Dublin, Virginia, posted a 20-page document, which they said were “highlights” of a proposed five-year contract for nearly 3,000 workers at the Volvo Trucks New River Valley (NRV) factory. Workers at the massive truck assembly plant struck for two weeks before the UAW announced a tentative agreement with Volvo on April 30 and immediately ordered workers back to work without a vote on or even seeing the proposed
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