INTERNATIONAL TRUCK AND ENGINE
Strikers stand strong, bargain new three-year contract
Robert Jones of UAW Local 6 is no longer worried about his plant closing and the work being outsourced.
On Dec. 16 Jones and more than 4,000 UAW members ratified a three-year agreement with International Truck and Engine (ITE) by 71 percent. The contract includes no plant closing agreements and a moratorium on outsourcing for the life of the agreement.
“It was a victory in support of both solidarity and UAW bargaining power,” said Jones, shop chair at the ITE Engine Plant in Melrose Park, Ill.
The contract ended a seven-week strike that began Oct. 23 in protest of unfair labor practices. It also covers members of UAW Locals 98, 226 and 2274 in Indianapolis, Ind.; Local 2911 in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Locals 402 and 658 in Springfield, Ohio; Local 472 in Atlanta; Local 119 in Dallas; and Local 1872 in York, Pa., who make medium- and light-duty truck engines and Navistar medium-duty trucks.
“Members showed 100 percent solidarity during the strike and grew closer as a Local 6 family,” Jones said.
“Our members showed extraordinary solidarity and won a contract benefiting UAW ITE workers, as well as the company and our communities,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. The agreement includes pension upgrades, health care protections for active and retired workers, and health and safety improvements.
UAW Vice President General Holiefield, who directs the union’s Heavy Trucks Department, said: “Our members wanted the security of going to work without fear that the employer would ship the work off somewhere else, and they accomplished that.”
