The following statement was written by the Mack and Volvo Trucks Workers Rank-and-File Committee. To contact the committee or join, fill out the form at the bottom of this article.
Brothers and sisters at Mack Trucks, Volvo Trucks, and throughout the auto and logistics industries:
Volvo Group’s decision to lay off nearly 1,000 workers across the Mack and Volvo Trucks plants in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia is part of the global attack on the jobs, wages and conditions of the working class. These attacks must be resisted!
We must revive the old labor principle: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” If we do not act together, we will be picked off one by one—or by the hundreds or thousands.
We call for all our fellow workers at Volvo and Mack Trucks in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and elsewhere to unite to fight these job cuts, and to coordinate this struggle with Volvo workers internationally. In 2021, workers at Mack in Macungie first formed our rank-and-file committee in order to support our striking brothers and sisters at New River Valley. We must deepen these bonds of solidarity across plants and put these principles into practice.
We urge our fellow workers to immediately begin organizing and expanding the rank-and-file committees at Volvo and Mack to coordinate a joint struggle, including preparations for strike action, to defend these jobs.
The layoffs at Volvo and Mack are part of a broader offensive against the working class. Stellantis, GM, and Ford have slashed thousands of jobs since the UAW imposed sellout contracts at the Big Three in 2023. Nissan announced Tuesday that it would double its job cuts globally to 20,000. UPS just announced 20,000 job cuts. And Volvo Group has cut positions at its Volvo Trucks plant in Belgium and Renault Trucks plants in France in recent years.
This is a coordinated campaign by the corporate oligarchy to reduce labor costs and boost profits as they prepare for global military conflict.
Some workers placed their hopes in Trump to reverse the corporate assault, thinking tariffs and “America First” policies would bring back jobs. But what are these policies producing? More layoffs, higher prices, and growing danger of war with China—a war that threatens not only our jobs, but our lives. Meanwhile, Trump has worked closely with Elon Musk—the world’s richest man, who brutally exploits Tesla autoworkers—to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers and dismantle bedrock social programs.
The reality is this: neither the Democrats nor the Republicans defend the interests of the working class. Both represent the corporate oligarchy that is bleeding workers dry.
The role of the UAW bureaucracy
The job cuts vindicate the warnings made by our rank-and-file committees in 2021 and 2023: that the sellout agreements rammed through by the United Auto Workers bureaucracy would pave the way for sweeping job cuts.
The union officialdom, headed by Shawn Fain, has proven itself once again to be a tool of corporate management. Fain’s support for Trump’s tariffs is not simply a pro-corporate economic policy; it is also part of the preparations for war with China. His references to the “arsenal of democracy” and the conversion of auto plants for military production reveal the direction this is heading: lining the working class up behind a new imperialist world war.
We say: Workers must not be conscripted into the economic or military plans of the ruling class! We reject both the trade war and the war drive. Our class enemy is not in China, Mexico, or anywhere abroad—it is here, among the corporations and the capitalist politicians who do their bidding.
UAW officials now claim that it is illegitimate for workers to strike while a labor agreement is in place. But the current contract was imposed on the basis of fraud and betrayal. In 2021, the UAW bureaucracy under then-President Ray Curry sabotaged the Volvo strike at New River Valley, pushing through a deal that workers had already rejected three times. In 2023, under Fain, the UAW betrayed striking Mack workers, first pushing a pro-company deal that we overwhelmingly rejected, then refusing to oppose management’s threats to replace us.
The companies violate contracts whenever they want. They shut down plants, lay off workers, and outsource jobs, all while we’re told to “respect the contract.” Union officials invariably uphold management’s rights over the rights of workers, asserting that the company has the “right” to deprive workers of our jobs. These treacherous arguments must be rejected.
We say: The right to a job and a livelihood is an inalienable social right! Workers are not the ones responsible for tariffs, economic chaos and corporate mismanagement, and we must not be made to pay for them.
Our lives are shaped by global economic forces whether we like it or not. When a factory shuts down in Mexico, or a ship is delayed in China, or a tariff hits European steel, we feel it in the form of layoffs, parts shortages, and frozen hiring. The trucks we assembled are the product of the social labor of countless workers all over the world, from those who mine and transport the raw materials, to those who manufacture the numerous components, to those who carry out the final assembly.
The international character of the working class is not just a slogan; it is a fact of life. If the companies have a global strategy, then so must workers organize and fight globally. The alternative is to remain isolated, betrayed by nationalist union officials who tell us to blame foreign workers while the corporations profit off our division.
This is not a fantasy. During the 2021 strike at New River Valley, Volvo workers internationally sent us messages of support, and Volvo Car workers in Belgium launched a wildcat strike shortly after learning about the strike at NRV.
These efforts must now be developed into real coordination and joint action across borders. The globally integrated nature of truck manufacturing—with more than 150,000 parts sourced from dozens of countries—means we are already linked. We must transform this objective connection into a conscious, organized struggle to defend our class interests.
Form rank-and-file committees to defend jobs!
A rank-and-file committee is an organization formed by workers themselves—not by union officials or politicians—based on democratic discussion, mutual trust, and a shared commitment to fight for the common class interests of workers. It is a vehicle for coordinating resistance, educating ourselves and our coworkers, exposing lies by company and union officials, and taking action.
To expand the network of rank-and-file committees, workers should:
Hold small meetings with trusted coworkers to discuss and prepare plans for action.
Agree on basic principles: international working class unity, independence from the union bureaucracy, and rejection of both corporate parties.
Connect with other committees through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) to share information and prepare joint actions.
Rank-and-file committees are not support groups—they are organs of class struggle. They aim to replace the apparatus that has betrayed us with new leadership drawn from the working class itself.
We put forward the following fighting demands:
No layoffs! Guarantee jobs for all workers across every plant.
Prepare to take action to defend jobs and wages! Organize now to build support for actions to stop the layoffs, up to and including strike action.
Workers’ control over production and automation! No transition or “restructuring” without our approval.
Reject nationalist and militarist policies! Oppose all tariffs and war preparations.
For international solidarity! Unite with workers in Mexico, China, Belgium, Brazil, and beyond.
Oppose the pro-corporate union apparatus! Build independent rank-and-file committees to transfer power to the shop floor.
Expropriate the corporate oligarchy! Place the auto and logistics industries under democratic workers’ control.
To every Volvo and Mack worker: join our committees. Take this statement to your coworkers. Discuss it. Organize meetings. Elect delegates. Build connections with other plants.
To UPS, auto, logistics, and warehouse workers: Form your own committees and link up with us through the IWA-RFC. We are facing a historic moment. It will be decided by what we—the working class—do.