The United Auto Workers union and Mack Trucks will hold a vote later this week on a five-year agreement negotiated by both sides.
The vote, scheduled for Nov. 15-16, will have union members vote on wages and benefit packages that the company offered at the master contract level and tentatively agreed to by the parties on Oct. 1.
A number of revised terms negotiated with the UAW on local agreements impacting Mack’s Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, Hagerstown and Baltimore, Maryland, and Jacksonville, Florida sites will also be discussed, said Mack Trucks in a statement.
According to the October term agreement, union members could expect a 36% wage increase over the next five years, and an immediate wage increase of nearly 15%.
For those not in the top rate of employees, nearly half of the total workforce will see an average increase of 55% over the next five years and an immediate increase of more than 20%.
For those at the top rate, they can expect an immediate wage increase of 10% and up to 20% compounded over five years.
Mack Truck research found that the employees at the top rate are already receiving wages above market rates.
According to Mack Trucks, premiums for the company’s healthcare coverage have not increased in more than six years despite a 66% increase in the company’s costs over the last decade.This would remain unchanged for five more years.
With the Oct. 1 tentative agreement, Mack Trucks seemingly then side-stepped a strike, but Mack’s UAW members, 3,900 employees, ultimately shot it down by 73%.Â
Those workers went on strike a week later at Mack facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida.
UAW reached a deal with Ford Motors near the end of October.
The agreement includes $8.1 billion in new plant investments by the company, $5,000 ratification bonuses and other economic gains such as 25% compounded wage increases and improved profit-sharing payments.
A few days later, UAW and General Motors came to a tentative agreement (that has yet to be ratified).
The terms of the pact are broadly similar to the deals signed earlier by Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV, including a 25% hourly pay raise plus cost-of-living allowances over the more-than-four-year contract.
