CHICAGO – Navistar International Corp. and the United Auto Workers resumed contract talks outside Chicago as a month-long strike continues.

The UAW represents about 1,125 striking production, maintenance and office workers at the Warrenville, Ill.-based Company’s Springfield mid-sized truck plant, Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said. The strike, called Oct. 23, has had no impact on operations as the company shifted work to non-union plants in Texas and Mexico.

Navistar shifted the work on Oct. 1 in anticipation of the six-state strike, which covers 4,000 UAW members.

The union continues to clash with the company on job security and health-care costs, said Charlie Hayden, president of UAW Local 402 in Springfield. Wiley said the company is asking for more flexibility in work rules.

A decade ago, Navistar's Springfield plant had nearly 5,000 workers before layoffs resulting from work being sent to other plants, a trend the union said it has been hoping to halt.

Navistar has 16,000 workers nationwide and is the parent company of International Truck and Engine Corp. International accounts for about half of sales for Columbus-based Core Molding Technologies Inc. through a supply agreement that runs through 2011.
0 Comments