Freightliner Workers to Vote on Contract

Associated Press | By STEVE HARTSOE - - Workers at Freightliner LLC's largest truck manufacturing plant planned to vote this week on a contract similar to agreements recently approved at two of its other plants in North Carolina.

"We think it's a pretty fair package for the workers," said Gary Casteel, director of 11 eastern states for the United Steelworkers union, which represents more than half the roughly 4,000 workers at the Rowan County plant in Cleveland, located about 44 miles north of Charlotte.

Wednesday's contract vote at the plant comes as the company lays off some 2,000 workers in the state.

Casteel wouldn't reveal details of the contract, but he said workers would make "significant" gains including a signing bonus of more than $1,000 and protected health benefits.

"We held the line on health care, which is a great thing in this day and time," he said.

USW workers at Freightliner plants in Mount Holly and Gastonia have approved contracts by margins of 80 percent and 95 percent, respectively, he said.

Freightliner is spending more than $300 million on a new plant in Mexico that would be similar to the facility in Rowan County, Casteel said.

He said the company assured the union it has no plans to replace the Rowan plant, which opened in 1989.

Still, the Portland, Ore.-based company has announced plans to lay off 1,160 workers in Rowan County. Freightliner is also cutting 478 jobs at its Mount Holly plant and 260 in Gastonia.

Freightliner, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG (nyse: DCX - news - people ), said up to 4,000 job cuts nationwide are necessary because buyers have been hesitant to purchase trucks equipped with new and expensive technology to curb diesel exhaust emissions. New emissions standards took effect Jan. 1.

A call to the company's headquarters was not immediately returned Monday.