United Auto Workers at Daimler Truck approve contract with more than 25% raises

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UAW members at Daimler Truck turned out Saturday to ratify a new contract that includes raises of more than 25%.

According to the United Auto Workers, 94.5% of the 7,300 workers who build Freightliner and Western Star Trucks and Thomas Built buses in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia voted in favor of the four-year agreement.

The deal also includes profit-sharing and Cost of Living adjustments for the first time for UAW workers at Daimler, the union said. It also ends a tiered wage system at Daimler, ensuring that workers who make trucks and buses get equal pay for equal work by the end of the contract.

The Daimler deal comes amid a broad campaign by the UAW to organize southern auto assembly plants following lucrative new contracts in a confrontation with Detroit's automakers. 

A tentative contract agreement reached April 26 averted a potential strike with the German company as the previous six-year contract was set to expire.

"Daimler Truck workers just showed the world that Southern workers have the power to Stand Up and win big in heavy truck and beyond," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement Saturday.

"Knowing that Daimler had made record profits year after year from their hard work, members used every tool —including the potent threat of a strike — to win. Daimler workers and UAW members are not only setting the standard but raising it. Workers are fed up and ready to fight for a better way of life, and the UAW is ready to go all-out in that fight."

Tim Smith, the UAW's Region 8 director, said in a statement the Daimler Truck membership was "fired up and unified."

"Whether they're just forming their union, like the brave workers in Chattanooga and Tuscaloosa, or bargaining a new contract at Daimler, Southern workers continue to push for a voice and a fair deal in this economy," Smith said.

Associated Press contributed.