Employees Protest Proposed Cut In Pay, Benefits

Local factory employees gathered in Gastonia Monday to protest a potential salary cut.

Freightliner employees said their pay could be cut by 40 percent, and that the cuts don’t just impact them.

“All of our trucks built here are now being shipped down to Mexico to be built,” one worker said.

Union workers said employees the Freightliner's plants in Mexico make more than $20 less per hour for doing the same job. It’s part of a nationwide trend, they said, that is sucking jobs out of the U.S.

“I'm married and I have a son who is going to be 4 years old in June,” Steve Goff said. “That's why I'm here every day.”

He said a contract offer from Freightliner, which proposed a 40 percent pay cut and sharp cut in benefits, will hurt him and his family.

The contract offer extends to workers at the company’s plants in Gastonia, Mount Holly and Cleveland.

“We can't hardly afford healthcare now,” Goff said.

The employees’ contracts will expire at the end of this week.

Freightliner's only comment was that they are making progress.

“I'm just hoping that we all have a job,” Goff said.

Union workers said if there is no deal by the deadline, the rally will become a strike.