United Auto Workers (UAW) at Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) manufacturing sites in three states have voted to authorize a strike if necessary, if or when their current labor deal expires April 26.
The measure passed by 96% of UAW's more than 7,000 DTNA workers and covers assembly workers in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee who build Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built Buses. Work stoppage authorizations are a matter of routine in labor negotiations and simply allow a union's elected bargaining committee to call a strike if warranted, UAW says.
DTNA declined to comment Monday but previously said it looked forward "to continuing good faith CBA negotiations with our UAW partners."
In a media campaign launched in late February, UAW workers at DTNA sites in Cleveland, Mount Holly, Gastonia and High Point, N.C., laid bare their frustration with a workplace that's "not like it used to be." Employees interviewed for the campaign by UAW cited the need to work additional jobs to make ends meet, wages out of synch with the pace of inflation, and a lack of job security, among other concerns.
UAW scored several high-profile labor contract wins across the U.S. automotive manufacturing sector last year, and also kicked off a nearly month-and-a-half long work stoppage at Mack Trucks facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida.
