United Auto Workers reaches deal with Daimler Truck, averting potential strike by more than 7,000 workers

The United Auto Workers union said it reached a last-minute tentative agreement with truck and bus maker Daimler Truck, averting a potential strike by more than 7,000 workers.

The union reached a four-year agreement with the German company on Friday evening, just before the expiration of the previous contract, signed into law six years ago. It covers workers at various factories in North Carolina – where Daimler makes Thomas Built, Freightliner and Western Star buses – as well as distribution centers in Atlanta and Memphis, Tennessee.

In an online speech, Shawn Fain, UAW President said the new contract provides for salary increases of more than 25% over the next four years, including a 10% increase after the agreement is ratified. Fain said the deal also included final salary levels at the company, as well as cost-of-living adjustments and “profit sharing for the first time in Daimler’s history.”

“When that deadline got closer, the company was suddenly ready to talk,” Fain said. “So tonight we celebrate.”

Union members must still approve the deal.

“UAW members at these sites will now be invited to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties,” Daimler said in a statement. The truck maker was once the same company as Mercedes-Benz before splitting in 2021.

The deal with Daimler comes amid a broad campaign by the The UAW will organize automobile assembly plants in the South following lucrative new contracts in a showdown with Detroit automakers. Last week, 73 percent of voters at the Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, chose to join the UAW. It was the first time the union had operated at a southern assembly plant owned by a foreign automaker.

Workers at Mercedes plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will vote on UAW representation in May. However, the UAW’s efforts drew backlash from Republican governors and Southern business leaders.