Navistar to resume production in Springfield on Monday

A local union official estimates that about 300 Navistar employees will return to work at the Springfield plant this week. JEFF GUERINI/STAFF

A local union official estimates that about 300 Navistar employees will return to work at the Springfield plant this week. JEFF GUERINI/STAFF

Navistar is scheduled to resume production on both of its assembly lines in Springfield on Monday after shutting them down last month due to a parts shortage caused by a national strike against General Motors.

Chris Blizard, the president of UAW Local 402, said representatives of Navistar expect to start receiving parts this week following the end of the 6-week GM strike called by the United Auto Workers union.

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The move to shutdown both those lines affected about 1,400 assembly production workers, said Blizard. He said impacted employees will return to work next week if everything goes according to plan.

Navistar builds medium-duty commercial trucks, including those for GM, on its main line and GM cutaway vans on its line two.

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Blizard also estimates that about 300 workers, mainly from the Springfield plant’s paint department and cab line, who have been temporarily laid off as a result of the parts shortage, will return to work this week.

Those workers will prepare the lines this week so production can resume on Monday.