UAW Members End Their Walkout at Caterpillar Plants After 3 Days

Striking members of the United Auto Workers on Sunday ended a three-day walkout at several major Caterpillar Inc. plants in Illinois.

UAW locals in East Peoria, Decatur and Pontiac said workers were expected to return to their jobs starting with the 11 p.m. Sunday shift.

Decatur local President Larry Solomon said UAW members at other plants in Illinois, Colorado and Pennsylvania also would return to work.

Caterpillar did not immediately comment on the move.

Workers began the strike Thursday at Caterpillar’s Mossville, Ill., plant to protest the suspension of a UAW representative. The action spread to other plants in Illinois and in York, Pa., and Denver, eventually involving 13,300 workers.

“We just figured it’s time to go back,” said Walt Koprowski, bargaining chairman for 600 UAW members in Pontiac. “We made our point. Why should our members suffer for something the company did wrong?”

UAW members at Caterpillar, one of the world’s largest makers of heavy equipment, have been working for months without a contract and under terms of the company’s final offer during negotiations.

Workers walked out in November, 1991, in what became a 163-day strike to press Caterpillar for better contract terms.

The 14,500 UAW members returned to their jobs in April, 1992, after the company threatened to hire permanent replacements.