Sterling, CAW resume talks to end strike

ST. THOMAS, Ont. –The two-week old strike at the Sterling truck plant in St. Thomas, Ont. may be coming to an end as the Canadian Auto Workers and management agreed to go back to the bargaining table.

The London Free Press reports management and the CAW, representing more than 2,000 Sterling plant workers, met yesterday afternoon in an attempt to bring an end to the strike.

As of this morning, there was no word if the union agreed to any new offering made by the company. But late yesterday CAW Local 1001 chairperson told the newspaper, that he was confident an offer was in the works. “We don’t know the specifics of it, but we are assuming it will be more than what was left on the table,” he told the Free Press, adding that the two sides are no longer far apart of key issues.

The union is demanding higher wages, more time off, and improved pension and benefits. Under the old contract, production workers earned about $26.00 an hour, while skilled tradespeople were paid just over $31.00.

The company’s final wage offer was increases of two percent, one percent, and 1.5 percent in each year of the three-year deal, the Free Press reports.

Workers also want guarantees the truckmaker — whose parent company is Portland-based Freightliner LLC — won’t shift production of the Sterling HX heavy-duty truck and the Acterra medium-duty to other facilities in the U.S. or Mexico during the industry downturn expected after January ’07.