Virginia Volvo Workers Resume Strike

Published: June 9, 2021, 5 p.m.

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It was April 30th when workers at a Volvo truck assembly plant in Dublin, Virginia called off a 13-day strike after the company brokered a peace agreement with the UAW: talks would begin again and so would the work.

And it\\u2019s true that talks, which had begun in February of this year, did resume while the plant\\u2019s 2,900 UAW members worked under the terms of an expired, five-year contract that had been reached in 2016.

Since then, UAW workers have voted \\u201cno\\u201d on a May 16th contract and \\u201cno\\u201d again on the second version that was put to a vote June 6th. It was after the latest decision that the union said workers would resume their strike the next day.

According to a report, 91 percent of union members voted against the salary language and 90 percent voted \\u201cagainst hourly and common language in the proposed six-year agreement.\\u201d This amounts to an even steeper defeat than that which applied to the contract that was voted down in May.

The plant\\u2019s VP and General Manager Franky Marchand called the action \\u201cdifficult to understand\\u201d and said the union leadership had previously endorsed the tentative agreement prior to the vote. He added that the plant was still committed to the collective bargaining process and remained confident an agreement would eventually be reached. Union leaders suggested the same, and said they\\u2019d be available to resume talks again this week.

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