CLEVELAND — On the eve of contract negotiations at Rowan County’s largest private employer, United Automobile Workers members are bracing for a possible labor dispute.

The current contract for the 7,000 UAW members who build Freightliner, Western Star trucks and Thomas Built Buses for Daimler Truck North America expires at 12:01 a.m. on April 26.

Those 7,000 workers are spread out across six facilities: four in North Carolina and distribution centers in Atlanta, Georgia, and Memphis, Tennessee. The Cleveland-based plant currently employees more than 2,000 workers with nearly half of them residing in Rowan County.

On Thursday, UAW Local 3520 President Corey Hill said the union wants to take this opportunity to return to what it used to mean to work at Daimler.

“It used to be that it was hard to even get an interview,” Hill said of working at the Cleveland facility. “It used to be when you landed a job here, everyone was excited.”

As time has passed, Hill said that the competitive wages and job security once characteristic of a Daimler job in Cleveland and elsewhere are no longer the reality.

In a new video, “Not Like It Used to Be,” workers speak out on the declining standards at Daimler Truck, and their fight for fair pay, cost of living adjustments (COLA), job security and more.

“When I first started here, I only needed to work one job. Now you need to work two jobs in order to make ends meet,” said Clavonne Davis, a worker at the Daimler plant in Cleveland. “It is our time to fight. It is our time to stand up and fight for what we deserve.”

Similarly, Freightliner worker Derek Smith said a changing economy has made things untenable the way they are.

“We signed this contract six years ago,” Smith said. “In the last six years, things have changed in our economy. Inflation has gone through the roof. Groceries are more expensive. Eating out is a luxury.”

As Hill puts it, UAW members are not asking to be given anything, but rather a fair market price for the value of their services. UAW literature points to the $20 billion that Daimler made in profits since 2018, adding that workers got left behind.

Despite the gap between where they are and where they want to be, Hill indicated that he is grateful for what the union affords himself and fellow manufacturers.

“Being unionized, it comes down to us being able to have a voice and talk about that with the company,” Hill said.

They hope to take those talks to the table when negotiations officially commence. The local plans to hold a rally at its 2300 Salisbury Hwy. location in Statesville. UAW President Shawn Fain will be in attendance.

Fain has served the UAW at every level for more than 20 years, primarily for five terms on the Skilled Trades Committee and as shop chair at Local 1166 (Stellantis Kokomo Casting Plant). He was also an international representative for a decade.

Fain opposed the 3/2/120 schedule when it was initially launched in 2003 at Mack Engine Plant, the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) agreements, and he was anti-ratification during the 2007 national agreement that implemented the two-tier system at Chrysler. He has also worked with other international staff and local leaders to stop the conductor initiative that then VP Norwood Jewell agreed to with the company behind closed doors.

Daimler workers are just the latest UAW members standing up to win a fair share of the profits they produce. Last year, thousands of UAW autoworkers walked out on strike for six weeks and won record contracts at the Big Three automakers. Earlier this year, workers at Allison Transmission in Indianapolis, IN, won a historic contract agreement by posing a credible strike threat.

The rally at the union office will take place on Tuesday, April 2, at 6 p.m. Attendees are asked to wear red to show solidarity.

Continue following the Salisbury Post for updates as contract negotiations unfold for the county’s largest private employer.