UAW's New Video Hits Daimler's Profit-hoarding Ahead of Worker Stand-Up

The Facts -

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers (UAW) have released a video titled “Leftover Money”, revealing Daimler Truck's record profits and the company's plans to favor Wall Street over its employees. The video includes testimony from workers expressing their desire for a fair share of the profits and improved working conditions.

The video is available here and the media has permission to use the footage.

The video explores how UAW members have been marginalized as Daimler channels record profits to top executives and wealthy investors.

In March, Daimler reported record results for 2023 and an optimistic outlook for 2024, which included:

• Profits of nearly $6 billion in 2023
• Profit growth of 39% from 2022
• Over half of the profits generated in North America
• Plans to spend $2.1 billion on stock buybacks and increase stock dividends by 46%

Following these announcements, Daimler's stock surged by 18% in a single day. Daimler CEO, Martin Daum, has publicly emphasized that:

• The company’s profits are “red hot”
• The “leftover money” belongs to the stockholders

The workers, in their direct-to-camera statement, demanded fairness from the company, stressing on the need for better wages, job security, and community welfare. They insisted on Daimler investing in American workers.

The release of the video follows a vote by 7,000 Daimler Truck North America workers, in which 96% supported the possible need for a strike. This high approval rate indicates that workers are eager to negotiate a record contract.

Workers from six Daimler Truck local unions in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee have staged practice pickets, emphasizing their readiness to strike. These practice pickets are not work stoppages; no entrances are blocked, and workers continue with their usual shifts. Information about these can be found here.

Negotiations with Daimler Truck management started on April 2, with the workers’ contract expiring on April 26. These workers, who manufacture Freightliner trucks, Western Star trucks, and Thomas Built Buses, face decreasing real wages and job security, despite Daimler Truck making record profits and large payments to its shareholders. Over the past six years, workers’ purchasing power has fallen by 13% while Daimler Truck's profits surged by 90%.

Daimler Truck workers are advocating for fair pay, cost of living adjustments, job security and a better future for working families, following the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike and record contracts with major automakers, and as workers nationwide continue their efforts to join the UAW.

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