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Talks to begin at Freightliner's Canadian plant

TORONTO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The Canadian Auto Workers union is set to begin contract talks with Freightliner's Canadian truck plant later this week, but admitted on Monday it cannot hope for the same lucrative deals scored at big automakers.

The talks with DaimlerChrysler's Sterling Truck division in St. Thomas, Ontario, comes 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.

But CAW spokesman Bob Chernecki said the union would not be able to extract the same type of deals scored at the 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 Three, that's not what will happen here. 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," said Chernecki.

"There's a whole host of workplace issues that will take priority over other things."

The powerful CAW squeezed out lucrative contracts, with three years of pay raises, and secured the future of a number of plants in pay talks with General Motors of Canada , Ford Motors of Canada , and DaimlerChrysler in October.

The Freightliner talks begin on Tuesday, with intense bargaining due to start in the middle of January.

($1=$1.56 Canadian)