Volvo Trucks North America today issued the following statement regarding the tentative agreement reached on July 1, 2021 with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union on the terms of a new, six-year contract that would cover approximately 2,900 employees at the New River Valley (NRV) truck assembly operations in Dublin, Virginia.
If ratified by the UAW membership, this agreement would: eliminate the two-tier wage structure; immediately take any employee currently in wage progression and hired on or before June 30, 2015 to top pay; institute a six-year progression to top pay for all employees, giving credit for years of active service; increase the new hire starting pay by more than 14 percent; and guarantee no increases in health insurance premiums over the life of the contract for the plant’s best-in-class health insurance coverage, an employee benefit which represents a cost of more than $20,000 a year per employee.
The Volvo Group is the only heavy-duty truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its trucks and engines for the North American market in the United States. The NRV plant employs more than 3,300 people, about 2,900 of whom are UAW members. The plant is in the midst of a $400 million investment for advanced technology upgrades, site expansion and preparation for future products, including the innovative Volvo VNR Electric truck. The plant has added 1,100 jobs since the current union agreement was implemented in 2016 and is on track to have a net increase of approximately 600 positions in 2021.
SOURCE: Volvo Trucks North America
