Volvo Group announces $1.1 billion second-quarter profits, after telling Virginia workers it could not afford wage and benefit improvements On Tuesday, Sweden-based Volvo Group announced strong profits of over a billion dollars for the second quarter of the year. The earnings report comes shortly after the conclusion of a five-week-long strike at the conglomerate’s New River Valley heavy trucks plant in southwestern Virginia. Last week, the company, with crucial assistance provided by the United Auto Workers union, imposed a six-year contract that substantially raises workers’ health care costs and keeps wage increases for many below inflation, among other concessions. While the aim of Volvo and the UAW has been to crush opposition through the shutdown of the strike and enforcement of the contract, workers have returned to the plant in an angry and defiant mood, telling the