TORONTO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Workers at Freightliner's Canadian truck plant walked off the job early on Friday after the truck maker and its union failed to reach a new contract agreement.
More than 1,100 members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 101 who build about 70 medium- and heavy-duty trucks a day at DaimlerChrysler's Sterling Truck division, St. Thomas, Ontario, went on strike after the company refused to back off from its demand for new escalating employee co-payments payments for health benefit coverage.
"We told them we're not going down the road of escalating co-payments," Bob Chernecki, assistant to CAW president Buzz Hargrove, said in a release.
"We're not even demanding any major benefit changes. In fact, we believe a restructuring of the benefit program with a different carrier will save the company significant administrative costs, let alone premium costs. But they're stuck on shifting the costs to workers."
Contract talks had been under way since January. Earlier this month, union members voted 88 percent in favor of a strike after talks broke down.
($1=$1.50 Canadian)