BY RICH STUART AND CAROLINE BELLAMY
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - The 1,230 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1832 at the Peterbilt truck plant here walked out May 3. The workers had rejected the company's "final offer" by a vote of 841 to 125.

The Nashville plant is one of two Peterbilt plants in the United States. The other, in Denton, Texas, is nonunion and continues to make trucks while the Nashville workers are on strike. The family that owns Peterbilt, the Piggott family of Washington state, also owns Kenworth Trucks, another maker of the big "18 wheelers" that sell for upwards of $100,000 a piece.

The parent company of Peterbilt and Kenworth, PACCAR, offered the Tennessee truck workers a 70-cent-an-hour pay raise. But this would be immediately eaten up by a proposed 25 percent increase in workers' payments for medical insurance.

According to strikers the 70-cent raise wouldn't apply to new hires and workers with less than two years seniority, but the increased insurance costs would. "The company is trying to `hoodoó the new employees!" said striker Gary Mercier, who installs fuel filters in the new trucks. He has worked at the plant for three years.

"I've got a strong disagreement with separating people - it's not right. All it does is weaken us," added Gary Cox, a three-year employee who wires truck engines.

Pickets said the number one issue is getting health insurance for retirees. Peterbilt workers have no health coverage when they retire. Another objective is a 401K retirement plan, in addition to the current pension plan.

As these reporters talked with the pickets one car after another honked in support of the strikers. One motorist hollered, "Stay out 'til they give you what you want!"

According to Mercier, Peterbilt has back orders for 25,300 trucks. Overtime work is voluntary at the Nashville plant. "I can get by without overtime if they'd give all these people driving by a job that don't have one," said Cox.

As of this writing, there are no negotiations taking place. Strikers said the company wanted a strike to occur now because Peterbilt is reconstructing the paint department and wouldn't be able to produce finished trucks anyway for several weeks.

When asked what they would do if the company doesn't come up with an acceptable contract offer after the construction is completed, striker Mike Crawford said, "Then they'll get farther behind on their back orders."

Rich Stuart is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 12014 in Birmingham, Alabama.  
 
 
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