Workers Strike at Ontario Navistar Plant

About 800 workers at Navistar International’s Chatham, Ontario plant went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Monday after negotiators failed to reach an agreement on a new contract, news services reported.

Dow Jones Newswires quoted a spokesman for the Canadian Auto Workers, the union representing the plant’s employees, as saying that Navistar is demanding cuts in wages and benefits.

In April, Navistar, parent company to International Truck & Engine, said that the plant could be closed if it does not reduce its costs by $28 million (Click here for previous coverage.).

At its peak in 1999, the 55-year-old factory employed 2,300 people.

A spokesman for the company said that negotiations ended just before midnight Sunday and that no date had been set to reopen them, Bloomberg reported.

In advance of the strike, Navistar had increased its output of heavy trucks and added more workers at its Escobedo, Mexico plant, company Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Robert Lannert told Bloomberg last month.

For the second quarter ended April 30, Navistar lost $4 million, or 7 cents a share on continued weak demand for its trucks and buses, Dow Jones Newswires said.

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