DaimlerChrysler workers strike at Ontario truck plant

St. Thomas February 24, 2003; Dan Hart writing for Bloomberg News reported that DaimlerChrysler AG workers at an Ontario heavy-truck factory went on strike last night after the company and the Canadian Auto Workers Union were unable to reach agreement on a new contract.

About 1,100 production and maintenance workers at the St. Thomas, Ontario, plant stopped work at 11:59 p.m. New York time yesterday, said Chris Brandt, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler's Freightliner LLC unit. The factory builds mostly heavy-duty trucks used for cement mixers, snow plows and dump trucks under the Sterling brand, as well as some medium-duty trucks, he said.

The workers, whose union won the right to represent them in October, walked out after DaimlerChrysler refused to back off its demand that employees contribute more of their pay toward health-care benefits, said Bob Chernecki, the CAW's assistant to the president. The two sides began talks in January.

"We're not going to go down that path of escalating payments," Chernecki said in an interview. He said wages and time off were also issues being discussed.

Chernecki said the company's first contract proposal raised workers' co-payments on prescription drugs to C$20 ($13.27) per visit from C$10, and to C$40 in the third year of the contract, which the union rejected.

The second proposal called for workers to have health care spending accounts with a fixed amount of money that would require employees to face co-payments or reduced benefits when the funds ran out, Chernecki said.

Brandt declined to comment, saying the company would issue a statement this afternoon. The factory builds about 70 trucks per day on two shifts, he said.

Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler bought the Sterling assets from Ford Motor Co. in 1997 and began selling trucks under the Sterling name in 1998, Brandt said. Sterling sold 10,318 heavy-duty trucks and 4,358 medium-duty versions last year, Brandt said. Portland, Oregon-based Freightliner is the world's largest truckmaker.