(Reuters) – A union representing workers at four Caterpillar Inc facilities said on Wednesday it reached a tentative agreement with the world’s largest construction equipment maker over wage increases and other issues, possibly averting a strike.
Union workers had threatened to strike for wage increases, improved safety measures and better healthcare benefits once a six-year labor contract expired.
The union said on Wednesday its bargaining team had reached the tentative agreement before the contract ended on March 1.
“Members at four locals in Illinois and Pennsylvania will review the tentative agreement and vote at upcoming ratification meetings,” the United Auto Workers (UAW) said in a statement, without giving any other details.
Caterpillar did not respond to a request for comment.
The contract, which covers roughly 7,000 union employees represented by UAW at three manufacturing plants in central Illinois and a parts and distribution center in York, Pennsylvania, expired on Wednesday.
A short supply of labor amid a robust demand environment has raised costs for heavy machinery companies like Caterpillar and rival Deere & Co and has given unions bargaining power to negotiate better contracts.
In January, union workers at the four Caterpillar facilities voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike, according to one local union’s Facebook page.
Contract negotiations between the UAW and the Irving, Texas-based manufacturer began on Jan. 5, the company said on its website.
CAT has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. In 2021, Caterpillar workers at two plants in Northern Ireland went on strike for 14 months before reaching an agreement. The last strike at the company in the U.S. was in May 2012.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
