Last month, Mack Trucks announced it would be laying off about 10 percent of its unionized workers at its Lehigh Valley, Penn., plant. Company officials blamed tariffs and the economic uncertainty they’ve caused as the reason.
“We were very surprised,” Mack Trucks employee and UAW Local 677 District 1 Committeeperson Dan Hand told Vox. “We have people that just started working on the shop floor Monday of last week. … They’re scared.”
The layoffs come one year after Mack Trucks’ parent company, Volvo, announced it was building a massive new truck plant in Mexico. The company claims it only planned to supplement its American workforce, not replace it, but union local UAW 577 slammed Mack’s decision and even endorsed tariffs as a tool to fight offshoring before President Donald Trump announced tariffs in earnest this year.
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However, tariffs still get mixed reviews from employees even as the plant shuts down a tenth of its workforce. Plant employee John Taniser told Vox the short-term pain is worth it for long-term change.
“It could be a year. It could be two years. But what we’re looking for is a path forward to thrive and not just sustain and exist,” said Taniser, a production line worker who voted for Trump in 2024.
Hand, meanwhile, voted for Trump in 2016, but then turned on him because of his treatment of organized labor in his first term. “It doesn’t seem like there’s a good game plan [at the White House],” said Hand
Economists say manufacturing will never be what it was in the U.S. because as nations get richer, their manufacturing jobs get replaced with service sector jobs. Vox reports the largest employers in the county are now hospitals and Amazon warehouses. And even the manufacturing that remains are more technology oriented requiring fewer human workers.
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Read the full story at Vox.
