Daimler Truck reaches deal with United Auto Workers, averts U.S. strike

Daimler Truck agreed to a new labor contract on Friday with over 7,300 hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) at six facilities in the U.S. South, averting a strike at the 11th hour.

"For months, we said that record profits should mean a record contract with no concessions," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a late-night appearance on YouTube from Charlotte, North Carolina, near where the company has plants.

"Our determination and solidarity has delivered," he said of the tentative deal, which workers still must ratify.

Daimler Truck, which makes Freightliner and Western Star trucks and Thomas Built buses, had faced the possibility of a strike beginning at midnight ET.

Daimler Truck said in a statement: "The UAW members... will now be asked to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties."

The deal at the German truck maker, which was spun off from what is now automaker Mercedes, comes just three weeks before votes on whether to join the UAW will be tallied at a Mercedes assembly plant in Alabama.

Fain's speech on Friday started almost an hour later than scheduled as Daimler Truck made late concessions, Fain explained. Several times during the talks last fall with the Detroit Three automakers - General Motors, Ford and Stellantis - the threat of a deadline led the companies to make concessions to avoid the strike's expansion.

Under Friday's deal, Daimler Truck workers will receive a minimum 25% general wage increase over the four-year contract, Fain said. That would match what workers at the Detroit Three received.

When the deal is ratified, Fain said members will receive an immediate 10% pay raise, followed by 3% increases six months and 12 months