Mexico Mack Truck plant may cost Lehigh Valley hundreds of jobs

Union leaders are blowing the whistle on Mack Truck’s Mexico plant.

Mack Truck workers and members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gathered at the Pennsylvania Capitol on Monday to share a simple message: Keep Mack Truck production in Pennsylvania. 

UAW leaders warned that 1,500 jobs from Mack Truck’s Lehigh Valley plant could potentially be lost if a new facility in Mexico is up and running next summer. 

“ Mack Volvo is building a plant in Mexico. That’s a direct threat to our jobs here in the Lehigh Valley,” Wence Valentin, UAW Region 9 Political Director, said during Monday’s press conference. “Our members build the best trucks in the world and they deserve security and stability, not outsourcing and broken promises. We will fight to keep jobs here in Pennsylvania and the United States.”

Mack Trucks, which is a subsidiary of Volvo, has been building its iconic trucks in the Lehigh Valley since 1975. The company currently employs roughly 2,800 workers at its Macungie facility. 

A spokesperson from Mack Trucks, however, stated that the company doesn’t have any plans to move production to Mexico and sees the plant as an opportunity to expand production to support growth plans in Mexico and Latin America.  

“We’ve invested more than $400 million in the [Lehigh Valley Operations] over the last decade, most recently to support production of the new Pioneer and Anthem models, and LVO will continue to be our flagship North American production site,” a Mack Trucks spokesperson said in a statement.

However, they did not directly refute the potential for job loss.

Tensions at the plant simmered as workers went on strike for 12 days in Oct. 2019. It was the first time workers at the plant did so in 35 years. That was followed up by another strike that lasted for 39 days in Oct. 2023.

Earlier this year, the UAW blamed Mack Trucks for falsely representing its plans to invest in Pennsylvania, and instead, take advantage of trade deals that allow its products to be built for $4 per hour. 

“ Those trucks built by Pennsylvanians have carried American flags across highways, job sites, and battlefields,” Tim Herzog, shop chairman with UAW Local 677, said during the press conference. “ When Mack Trucks builds outside of Pennsylvania, it doesn’t just hurt the workers who build the trucks. It hurts our communities, our small businesses, and our state’s tax base.”

Herzog told The Keystone that he believes Mack Trucks has been working on this plant for one to two years even though it only went public with the announcement in April. He went on to explain how the new plant will lessen bargaining power for Mack employees and lead to job loss.

“Obviously, our bargaining power is going to be lessened, but right now we’re contractually guaranteed 50% plus one to be built in the Lehigh Valley, and if they take advantage of that, we could lose roughly 1,500 jobs in the Macungie area,” Herzog said in an interview.