Union: Contract approved at Freightliner plant in North Carolina

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070506/UPDATE/705060341/1396

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Union: Contract approved at Freightliner plant in North Carolina

Associated Press

CLEVELAND, N.C. -- Workers at Freightliner LLC's largest truck manufacturing plant have approved a new contract, barely two weeks after rejecting an earlier agreement.

Members of United Auto Workers Local 3520 approved the latest contract Friday with an 89 percent vote, according to the union Web site. A breakdown of votes and details of the agreement were not available. Messages left with the union and Portland, Ore.-based Freightliner were not immediately returned Saturday.

At last month's 749-621 vote to reject the contract, some workers at the plant said they opposed the deal in part because it would have paid them less than workers at the Freightliner plant in Mount Holly. Others didn't like what they said was a lack of profit sharing.

Freightliner, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, has said it is cutting up to 4,000 jobs nationwide, including about 1,900 in North Carolina. The company said the cuts were in response to slow sales of trucks equipped with new and expensive technology aimed at curbing diesel exhaust emissions.

In April, Freightliner laid off 1,160 of its 3,400 workers at the Cleveland plant, about 44 miles north of Charlotte.