CHICAGO, June 23 (Reuters) - A 10-month lockout at truck maker Paccar Inc.'s Peterbilt plant in Tennessee has ended after union workers voted Sunday to accept a new five-year labor contract, a company spokesman said Monday.
Paccar, the second-largest U.S. truck manufacturer, locked out about 750 United Auto Workers members at its Peterbilt heavy-duty truck factory in Madison, Tennessee, on Sept. 3 after the two sides failed to negotiate a new labor contract.
About 250 UAW employees will return to work at the plant on July 1, Paccar spokesman Glen Morie said.
The other approximately 500 workers were laid off from the plant in November due to weak demand for trucks.
The new five-year agreement includes wage and pension benefit improvements and requires workers to share some health care costs, Morie said.
The Tennessee plant employed as many as 1,400 workers at a peak in early 2000 before the soft economy caused a downturn in the trucking market.
Bellevue, Washington-based Paccar, which also makes the Kenworth line of trucks, plans to build about a dozen Peterbilt trucks a day at the Tennessee plant when it reopens, Morie said.
Paccar also makes heavy-duty trucks in Texas and Quebec.
Shares of Paccar were down 78 cents, or about 1.1 percent, at $68.01 in morning trade on the Nasdaq market.