UAW strike on Daimler Truck averted at 11: NPR

Unionized workers at Daimler Truck Co., which makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses in North Carolina, received big raises and cost-of-living allowances.

Karen Blair/AFP via Getty Images

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Karen Blair/AFP via Getty Images

Unionized workers at Daimler Truck Co., which makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses in North Carolina, received big raises and cost-of-living allowances.

Karen Blair/AFP via Getty Images

The United Auto Workers union announced late Friday that it has struck a new favorable contract for 7,300 workers at Daimler Truck North America. The union had threatened to strike starting at midnight when their last contract expired.

The vast majority of the union's employees work at plants in North Carolina, where Daimler makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses. There are fewer employee parts distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis. The UAW was the first to unionize workers at Daimler Truck starting in the 1990s.

Like the Big Three automakers who left their jobs last fall, Daimler workers have been demanding big raises, reviving the “record profits mean record contracts” slogan raised by last year's strike.

The new contract includes raises of at least 25 percent over four years, as well as cost-of-living and profit-sharing allowances, the first for Daimler Truck workers since joining the UAW, the union said. These gains are similar to what the union achieved for workers of the three largest companies last fall.

Unionized workers still need to ratify the deal.

Earlier Friday, Daimler Truck issued a statement saying it has engaged in good faith negotiations with the UAW, and is working to reach new contracts that will benefit both sides and “allow Daimler Truck North America to continue providing products that enable our customers to Keeping the world moving.” “.

The culmination of the talks comes just one week after the UAW scored a major victory in another Southern state, winning a union election at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was the union's third attempt to organize the factory, after the first two attempts ended in 2013. Narrow defeats.

On May 13, workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, will begin voting on whether to join the UAW.

Once part of the same company, Daimler Truck spun off from Mercedes-Benz in 2021. However, an outcome seen as favorable to workers in North Carolina could give the UAW a boost not only in the upcoming Mercedes-Benz election , but also in the ongoing union campaigns. At Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, and other foreign-owned auto plants in the South.

The UAW pledged earlier this year to spend $40 million on organizing efforts through 2026, with a focus on the South.