UAW calls strike against Navistar

By Kevin Krolicki and Jui Chakravorty

DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday said it had called a strike against Navistar International Corp NAVZ.PK, almost three weeks after a contract covering about 4,000 workers expired.

The union said it had called the strike, effective 5 p.m EDT on Tuesday, in response to what it called unfair labor practices by International Truck and Engine unit, Navistar's major operating unit.

The strike came after two-days of intensive contract talks between the union and the Chicago-based company, which makes diesel engines, International-brand commercial trucks, school buses and chassis assemblies for motor homes.

Navistar aid it expected that the strike would not disrupt sales. "We expect our customers to continue to receive their orders in a timely manner," Jeff Bowen, vice president of human resources at ITE said in a statement.

Hours before the strike announcement, the UAW filed a complaint against Navistar with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that the company had violated the law by shutting down a UAW-represented assembly plant in Springfield, Ohio and withholding information in negotiations.

Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said those claims were without merit. "It's absolutely and entirely false and we have every confidence that we will be vindicated," he said.

Before talks resumed this week, the UAW had broken off labor talks with International Truck and Engine earlier this month to review the company's contract proposals. The union's previous contract with the company expired October 1.

"International Truck and Engine has shredded our agreement, shipped our work out of the country, and trampled our nation's labor laws," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement.