Solidarity Statement: Largest strike in NC in many decades looms for autoworkers! UE150 members at Rocky Mount Cummins plant make their engines!
The members of the statewide North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 150 join the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) in offering our full support and solidarity to members of the United Auto Workers at Freightliner truck assembly plants in Cleveland, Gastonia and Mount Holly, N.C., and Thomas Built Bus plant in High Point, N.C., in their ongoing negotiations with Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA). The current contract is set to expire on April 26, 2024.
   If the contract expires without union agreement, they are set to engage in the largest strike in North Carolina in many decades. Nearly 7,000 workers are covered under the UAW’s master contract at DTNA’s four big heavy truck and bus plants across the state, plus plants in Memphis and Atlanta.
   These contract negotiations have particular significance to UE Local 150, as the members of the Carolina Auto, Aerospace and Machine Workers Union (CAAMWU), our UE 150 chapter at the Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant (RMEP) in Whitakers, N.C., build and supply diesel and/or natural gas engines to all three of these plants. So in a sense the workers at Cummins RMEP are co-workers of the DTNA workers.
   Daimler has gained a 90% increase in profits since 2018. DTNA grossed $6 billion profit just in 2023.Record profits should mean record pay increases for the workers! A record contract for pay and benefits between the United Auto Workers and DTNA will set the pace for the whole diesel truck and bus industry, potentially impacting the workers at Cummins RMEP.
 Last week, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted 2,628 to 985 to join the UAW! In the wake of that great victory for auto workers in the South, UE Local 150 joins in supporting our UAW brothers and sisters at DTNA plants in North Carolina in their contract struggle to significantly raise wages and working conditions that can lead the way for all workers across the South.