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DaimlerChrysler to Lock Out UAW Members At Freightliner Plant in North Carolina

16 December 2000

DaimlerChrysler to Lock Out UAW Members At Freightliner Plant in North Carolina

    MT. HOLLY, N.C., Dec. 16 The DaimlerChrysler Corporation
has rejected UAW proposals for a new labor agreement at its Freightliner
Division in Mt. Holly, North Carolina.  Negotiations to replace the previous
agreement, which expired at midnight on December 15, broke off early Saturday
morning and company executives have informed the union that members of UAW
Local 5285 will be locked out of their jobs as of Monday, December 18.
    The lockout is the latest in Freightliner's campaign of threats and
intimidation directed at UAW members, including illegal threats to move work
to Mexico.
    "We are disappointed that the company has decided to create this
unnecessary confrontation with its own workforce," said UAW Vice President
Nate Gooden, who directs the union's Heavy Truck Department and its
DaimlerChrysler Department.  "DaimlerChrysler has many problems which require
the full attention of its senior managers.  Locking out workers at
Freightliner is not the solution to any of them."
    "Our bargaining team is prepared to work with the company to reach a fair
agreement," said Bob Riggins, President of UAW Local 5285.  Differences
between the parties at present, he said, include health and safety and
economic issues.
    "We've got too many of our members getting hurt at work," said Riggins.
"We need better health and safety language in our contract, and we need the
means to make sure that language is implemented."  Freightliner workers in
Mt. Holly have sustained more than 1,400 compensatible injuries during the
past three years, he noted, at a cost to the company of more than
$4.8 million.  "If they'll work with us," said Riggins, "we can protect our
people and save them money at the same time."
    On economic issues, Riggins noted that although Freightliner leads the
trucking industry in market share, sales, and profits, the company is last in
the industry in pensions for production workers.  Unlike its peer companies,
the company has no profit-sharing formula, no meaningful cost-of-living
formula, and provides no health benefits for laid off workers.
    In addition, while the company claims to pay competitive wage rates,
nearly one-third of the members of Local 5285 earn between $11 and $14 per
hour and are not eligible for the company's top wage rate.  The company's
contract proposals so far have provided no wage increase at all for these
low-seniority workers.
    Locked out workers at Freightliner will be eligible for UAW strike
benefits, including health insurance payments, said Vice President Gooden.
"Our union is not going to let DaimlerChrysler steal Christmas from
Freightliner workers and their families," he said.  "Our entire membership,
including 75,000 members at DaimlerChrysler, will stand with us at
Freightliner."