DETROIT – The UAW just released “Leftover Money,” a new video detailing Daimler Truck’s record profits and their intentions to reward Wall Street, not the workers, with the spoils. It features testimony from workers reviewing the eyepopping profits and their demands to no longer play “second fiddle” when it comes to getting their fair share and raising standards.
The video can be accessed at this link, and the media is invited to use the footage.
The video digs down into statistics showing how UAW members have been left out in the cold as Daimler has funneled their record profits to CEOs and wealthy investors.
In March, Daimler announced record results in 2023 and a robust outlook for 2024, including:
- Daimler made nearly $6 billion in 2023
- Profits increased 39% over 2022
- Over half of those profits were generated in North America
- The company plans to spend $2.1 billion on stock buybacks and intends to increase stock dividends by 46%
After those announcements, Daimler’s stock jumped 18% in just one day. In interviews, Daimler CEO Martin Daum has bragged that:
The company’s profits are “red hot”
The “leftover money” belongs to the company’s stockholders
Speaking direct to camera, the workers shared their message to the company: “We make the product. We make the profits. And it’s time to make things right. Our wages have fallen far behind. Our job security is on the chopping block. Our families and communities deserve better. And we’ve sacrificed long enough. We’re done playing second fiddle. It’s time for Daimler to invest in the American worker. The money is there. The cause is just. And the time is now.”
The video launch comes just weeks after 7,000 Daimler Truck North America workers voted by 96% to authorize a strike if necessary. This overwhelming support shows the workers are determined to secure the record contract they’ve earned.
Daimler Truck workers from six different local unions in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee have been holding practice pickets to demonstrate they won’t tolerate unfair labor practices like refusing to provide information, and that they are strike-ready. Practice pickets are not work stoppages; no entrances will be obstructed and workers will report to their shifts as usual. (Dates, times and locations of all practice pickets can be found here.)
Bargaining with Daimler Truck management began on Tuesday, April 2, and the workers’ contract expires on April 26. The workers who build Freightliner trucks, Western Star trucks, and Thomas Built Buses are facing declining real wages and job security even as Daimler Truck tallies record profits and makes massive payouts to shareholders. Over the past six years, Daimler Truck’s profits have increased by 90% while workers’ buying power has fallen 13%.
On the heels of the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike and record contracts with the Big Three automakers, and as tens of thousands of workers across the country continue organizing to join the UAW, Daimler Truck workers are standing up in their fight for fair pay, cost of living adjustments (COLA), job security and a better future for working families. |
