The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union is set to begin contract talks with Freightliner's St. Thomas, Ontario, Sterling Truck plant today.
The negotiations come just months after the CAW won the right to form a union at the plant that makes about 70 medium- and heavy-duty trucks a day and employs about 1,100.
However, CAW spokesman Bob Chernecki told Reuters that the union would not be able to extract the same type of deals scored at carmakers, given the shaky economics of a truck sector that faces plant closures and massive layoffs. "We're in a different industry here. I'm not going to say we're going to pattern after the Big 3, that's not what will happen here," said Chernecki. "I'm not going to say we're going to come out with an agreement that looks like DaimlerChrysler. I don't believe that's going to happen here."
