Workers at Navistar International’s Canadian heavy truck plant have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new scheme that will keep the doomed plant in southwestern Ontario open, according to Reuters.
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The Canadian Auto Workers union told the news agency that more than 90% of the workers who voted approved of the plan that would guarantee the production of at least 35 trucks a day until January 2007, at which point the two sides will come back to the table to decide how to proceed.
The only condition now left is the need for government support, CAW’s president Buzz Hargrove said in a statement cited by Reuters, which added that the agreement included secure pensions and buyouts and retirement incentives.
Reuters said the heavy-duty truck assembly plant, scheduled to close on July 18, was the target of a six-week strike last year by members of the Canadian Auto Workers union demanding it remain open.
Union workers returned to their jobs after Navistar, the No. 3 US truck maker, agreed not to halt production at the plant for at least one year, Reuters added.
However, the two sides never reached an agreement on how to cut $28 million in costs from plant operations, which the company said was needed to make the facility competitive, Reuters noted.
The news agency said the Chatham plant currently produces an average of 35 trucks a day, down from a peak of 120 a day in 1999.
According to Reuters, the plan is contingent on obtaining government financial assistance and approval from the company’s board of directors.
