BUFORD, Ga. — Chanting “No bucks, no trucks!” and “We are the union — mighty, mighty union!” some 80 members of the United Auto Workers marched here April 20 in a practice picket in front of the Daimler Trucks parts warehouse.
Some 7,000 Daimler workers at truck assembly plants and warehouses in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia are preparing to strike April 26 if a contract isn’t reached. Workers voted by 96% to authorize a strike in March.
“We are ready!” was the most frequent comment from union members.
“I’ve worked at the warehouse here for 19 ½ years,” UAW Local 10 member Conrad Blackburn told the Militant. “We need higher wages. After I got hired, I maxed out at top pay in 2008 and I haven’t had a raise since then!”
“This fight is also important for the younger workers coming in,” said warehouse worker Joe Ellis.
The union is fighting for higher wages, a shorter wage progression from the current six years to reach top rate, cost-of-living adjustments to ensure wages keep up with inflation and better benefits, including additional holidays and bereavement time.
UAW Local 10 members from the warehouse were joined by a busload of UAW Local 5285 members from the assembly plant in Mt. Holly, North Carolina. A union member from the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers won an overwhelming victory in their union election April 19, also took part.
“We are thrilled about the union victory at VW,” UAW Local 5285 Vice President Mark Hoyle told the Militant. Many others said they felt the same way.