daimler-trucks.JPG

Workers build heavy trucks at Daimler's Swan Island Western Star manufacturing plant.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian/2011)

Union workers at Daimler Trucks North America’s Swan Island plant plan to strike just after midnight Sunday and expect to picket around the clock at the manufacturing facility.

The move comes after two of the four unions representing plant workers voted Saturday to reject a contract offer from the company, a union official said.

The striking workers, members of International Association of Machinists Local 1005 and International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 1094, want raises to offset rising health care costs and to make up for four years of pay freezes.

The company’s latest offer didn’t go far enough, said Machinists representative Joe Kear.

“The long-term employees” — those who have worked for the company for 20 to 30 years — “feel they deserve the respect of wage increases,” he said.

The plant’s two other unions, Teamsters Local 305 and Service Employees International Union Local 49, accepted contracts. About 725 union members work

at the plant, which builds the Western Star truck line, Kear said.