Volvo strike ends with new contract for auto workers

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Workers will return to the Dublin plant March 24. The strike lasted more than six weeks.

Source: The Roanoke Times

Members of United Auto Workers Local 2069 voted Saturday to ratify a new three-year contract with Volvo Trucks North America, ending a strike of more than six weeks and paving the way for employees to return to work

The contract was approved by 90 percent, according to the local union's President Lester Hancock. He was not sure how many people voted, but did say there was a large turnout.

"I'm just satisfied with the new contract," Hancock said. He described how the contract's health and safety language had been fixed....

"We just have a lot of wounds that we need to heal," he said. "It's been a real long day," he added...

...Volvo was looking to dismantle recall rights and health and safety protections.

Volvo, however, has denied assertions regarding recall rights and health and safety concerns and, in a letter announcing a return to bargaining, Per Carlsson, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Trucks North America, focused on three separate issues: "increased health care cost sharing," "the exceptionally high degree of manpower movement and higher-than-average absenteeism in the factory."

After weeks of trading barbs in media interviews and employee missives, negotiators with Volvo and the UAW returned to the bargaining table March 5. Six days later, Volvo announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the union on a three-year contract.

Strikers interviewed last week reacted to news of the agreement with tempered excitement, saying they looked forward to returning to work but wanted to make sure the agreement was a good one.

"If I have to, I'll stay out here longer," union member Melissa Bratton said Wednesday. But "I think everybody will be glad to be back."

Bratton, a Dublin resident who has worked at Volvo since 1999, said she was most concerned about health insurance, safety issues, retirement benefits and recall rights.

Union members heard details about the agreement in two three-hour meetings Saturday.


Full Story at link: http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/154920

"The contract was approved by 90 percent"

[DainBramaged]

1. A victory, long live the UAW