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17 December, 2000UAW members at DaimlerChrysler's heavy truck manufacturer vote in favour of new agreement.
USA: On Sunday, December 17, UAW workers overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year agreement at Freightliner, in Mt. Holly, North Carolina.
On December 16, the United Auto Workers, affiliated to the IMF at global level, reported that DaimlerChrysler Corporation had rejected union proposals for the new collective contract at its Freightliner Division in Mt. Holly. When the previous agreement expired at midnight on December 15, the company informed the union that members of UAW Local 5285 would be locked out as of December 18. However, negotiations resumed over the weekend, and a new contract representing union gains in most areas of their demands was achieved.
Differences between the negotiating parties had been over health and safety and economic issues. Freightliner workers in Mt. Holly suffered more than 1,400 compensable injuries during the past three years at a cost to the company of more than US$4.8 million. On economic issues, although Freightliner leads the trucking industry in market share, sales, and profits, the company has been last in the industry in pensions for production workers. It offered no profit-sharing, no meaningful cost-of-living formula and no health benefits for laid off workers. While the company claimed to pay competitive wage rates, nearly one-third of the members of Local 5285 earned between $11 and $14 per hour and were not eligible for the top wage rate. The company's contract proposals had provided no wage increase at all for these workers.
Among other benefits, the new agreement, however, includes a wage rise of $1.15 an hour in the first year of the contract for top-wage workers, and lower-wage earners will receive similar increases in each of the first two years of the contract. The threat to lock out workers was part of Freightliner's campaign of intimidation directed at UAW members, including illegal threats to move work to Mexico.
On December 16, the United Auto Workers, affiliated to the IMF at global level, reported that DaimlerChrysler Corporation had rejected union proposals for the new collective contract at its Freightliner Division in Mt. Holly. When the previous agreement expired at midnight on December 15, the company informed the union that members of UAW Local 5285 would be locked out as of December 18. However, negotiations resumed over the weekend, and a new contract representing union gains in most areas of their demands was achieved.
Differences between the negotiating parties had been over health and safety and economic issues. Freightliner workers in Mt. Holly suffered more than 1,400 compensable injuries during the past three years at a cost to the company of more than US$4.8 million. On economic issues, although Freightliner leads the trucking industry in market share, sales, and profits, the company has been last in the industry in pensions for production workers. It offered no profit-sharing, no meaningful cost-of-living formula and no health benefits for laid off workers. While the company claimed to pay competitive wage rates, nearly one-third of the members of Local 5285 earned between $11 and $14 per hour and were not eligible for the top wage rate. The company's contract proposals had provided no wage increase at all for these workers.
Among other benefits, the new agreement, however, includes a wage rise of $1.15 an hour in the first year of the contract for top-wage workers, and lower-wage earners will receive similar increases in each of the first two years of the contract. The threat to lock out workers was part of Freightliner's campaign of intimidation directed at UAW members, including illegal threats to move work to Mexico.