From Tulsa World

Navistar International Corp. has resumed contract talks with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union aimed at ending a five-week strike.

The meeting was the first since Oct. 23, when 3,700 union members in six states walked out.

The strike against Warrenville, IL-based Navistar comes as sales of its heavy and medium-size International trucks declined 39 percent in the first 10 months of the year, according to the trade publication Automotive News.

Navistar shifted production to non-union factories so the strike has had "no impact on us whatsoever," company spokesman Roy Wiley told Bloomberg News.

"We can go on indefinitely," he said. "We hope we don't have to."

UAW spokesman Roger Kerson had no comment.

Navistar should be able to meet demand without the unionized plants if it maintains production through Christmas, said Brian Rayle, an analyst at FTN Midwest Research Securities in Cleveland, Ohio. Risks may emerge if truck sales "begin to have any kind of recovery," he said.

Workers in Indianapolis; Springfield, Ohio; Fort Wayne, IN; Melrose Park, IL; Atlanta; Dallas; and York, PA, have been affected by the strike, the Detroit-based union says.

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