A four-year contract has been reached between the United Auto Workers and Daimler Truck North America, averting a strike at several U.S. facilities that could have started Saturday and shut down production of Freightliner and Western Star trucks.
The pact covers approximately 7,400 workers at Daimler North America (NASDAQ: DTGHF) facilities who build Freightliner and Western Star trucks: the Mount Holly, North Carolina, truck manufacturing plant; the Cleveland, North Carolina, truck manufacturing plant; the Gastonia, North Carolina, parts plant; the Atlanta parts distribution center in Buford, Georgia; and a parts distribution center in Memphis. It also covers a plant in High Point, North Carolina, where Thomas Built buses are manufactured.
The contract agreement will now go to the UAW rank and file for ratification. The former deal expired at midnight Saturday.
UAW celebrated the agreement as “historic,” saying the deal “delivers major economic gains for 7,300 workers,” which includes raises of more than 25%, an end to what it described as “wage tiers,” and brings profit sharing and cost-of-living increases into the contract for the first time. The UAW organized the workers at Daimler North America approximately 30 years ago.
“We said we needed protection against inflation so workers aren’t left behind,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in an address to the UAW membership.
“And we won COLA — cost-of-living for the first time in Daimler history.”
The financial details laid out by Fain are that all workers will receive at least 25% in raises over the next four years. Ten percent will come upon ratification, another 3% in six months and then another 3% six months later. “That’s a 16% raise in the first year of the deal, alone,” Fain said.
“We won equal pay for equal work, ending wage tiers at Daimler,” Fain said.
That refers to the fact that the lowest paid workers who are building the Thomas Built buses will get raises of more than $8 per hour. Some “skilled trades members” at that North Carolina plant will receive raises of more than $17 per hour, Fain said.
Fain also said workers will have increased job security and a higher “build rate.” “This guarantees a certain minimum number of vehicles will be built at each plant, so workers can know their work will be there tomorrow,” he added.
“They tried to stonewall us,” Fain said of negotiations that began three weeks ago. “But we kept our eye on the clock. And when that deadline came closer, the company was suddenly ready to talk. So tonight, we celebrate.”
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