Following a hard-fought campaign and even the threat of a strike, the United Auto Workers Union has reached an agreement with multibillion dollar truck and bus manufacturer Daimler Truck on a new contract for 7,300 workers at six facilities in the south. Hooray!
Daimler Truck, which builds Freightliner trucks, Western Star trucks, and Thomas Built Buses, had been doing pretty well for itself over the last six years, during which it increased its profits by 90 percent, while its workers’ purchasing power decreased by 13 percent. The company probably thought things might continue on that way forever, but its workers and the union representing their interests had another plan.
This is just the latest success for the UAW, which has been busting heads and breaking hearts all over the whole damn country for the last year or so — by which I, of course, mean that they have had a successful strike, gotten workers some really great contracts and started unionizing all the nonunion plants. Also that I have a little crush on UAW president Shawn Fain, if you had not noticed.
The announcement came just one day after the UAW filed four unfair labor practice charges against Daimler, including:
Retaliation Against Union Activities: The UAW asserts that Daimler Truck has engaged in retaliatory actions against workers who have participated in union activities or expressed support for the union.
Interference with Workers’ Rights: The UAW claims that Daimler Truck has unlawfully interfered with workers’ rights to organize, bargain collectively, and engage in other concerted activities for mutual aid and protection.
Discrimination Against Union Members: The charges cite discriminatory treatment against workers based on their union membership or activities.
Failure to Bargain in Good Faith: The UAW contends that Daimler Truck has failed to bargain in good faith with the union regarding wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Which just goes to show, sometimes you have to play a little hardball to get what you want.
“The four-year agreement delivers major economic gains for 7,300 workers,” a statement from the UAW reads, “including raises of more than 25%, the end of wage tiers, and the introduction profit-sharing and Cost-of-Living (COLA) for the first time since Daimler workers first organized with the UAW.”
The elimination of wage tiers is probably the most cathartically satisfying of all of the gains in these contracts. These companies were just so brazen about phasing out all of the fairly compensated workers and entering a brand new era of cheap labor, thinking they’d barely get any pushback, and that dream is now being crushed. That is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
The communities surrounding these plants will also benefit, because the people working at them will have more money to spend on going out, shopping at local businesses and more. Additionally, when wages go up in one sector, that puts pressure on other businesses to do the same. Some might even be a little afraid that if they don’t, a union will come for their asses as well — and that’s exactly where we want them.
It’s also a particularly big deal that this is happening in the South, which was once a refuge for manufacturing companies in search of nonunion cheap labor and low corporate taxes. The low corporate taxes they still have, but now they must share in that fiscal bounty with their workers. That, too, is a beautiful thing.
Now, I’m not trying to get ahead of myself here, because I do realize that there are, unfortunately, a whole lot of conservative union members. But I do think that demonstrating how people can get more of what they deserve when they operate as a collective rather than as individuals is something that could start to change some minds here and there. They also might want to vote for people who will overturn the Right-to-Work-for-Less laws that get in the way of effective collective bargaining. I’m just saying, we should always look for opportunities to open minds.
The next item on the agenda is the Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, which will vote on whether or not to join the UAW from May 13 to 17, and we have a pretty good feeling it’s gonna go well.
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