BY SARA PITZER
SALISBURY POST

Freightliner Corp. announced a $1,000 special employee bonus and increases in its wage structure Thursday.

The bonus will affect non-exempt and non-union employees at Freightliner’s corporate offices in Portland, Ore., and manufacturing plants and parts distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada – including those in Cleveland.

The company will implement a two-step wage increase plan that will raise the top truck assembler wage rate to $21 per hour by June 1, 2000. Freightliner’s top wage rates will increase 85 cents per hour June 1, 1999, and 75 cents per hour June 1, 2000.

Also, the company announced plans for another bonus in 2000.

Freightliner President Jim Hebe said the Cleveland plant has grown steadily. ‘‘When we started last year, January 1998, we had about 2,600 employees at Cleveland. Today we have about 3,500. We are producing about 165 trucks a day now and that’s going to 200 by the end of the year. More trucks mean more money for our employees.’’

About 3,200 employees work for Freightliner, another 140 for America LaFrance, Hebe said. ‘‘We started from a little plant in 1991 and today on that little corner we have about 3,500 people.’’ Freightliner bought American LaFrance, which makes fire trucks, in 1995.

Freightliner produced a record 128,500 commercial trucks and other vehicles in 1998 and achieved the lead of the North American Class 4-8 Commercial Vehicles market for the first time in its history. Freightliner retained its seven-year lead of the heavy truck market, ending 1998 with a 33.1 percent market share.

‘‘Our employees made tremendous contributions to our success, both in terms of their skill and dedication and their active involvement in initiatives to continually improve our manufacturing processes,’’ Hebe said in a written statement.

In a telephone interview, Hebe said the training facility in Cleveland ‘‘has gone a long way to help us not only increase employment but also helped us in providing a better trained work force for our environment.’’

As an incentive to attract Freightliner to Cleveland, the state contributed millions to build a training school on Freightliner land where classes are sponsored in cooperation with Rowan Cabarrus Community College to train employees in Freightliner technology.

Employers generally call the labor market tight in Rowan County, with unemployment at 2.6 percent at the end of February. Hebe said his company is always looking for good employees, but ‘‘with our wages and benefits, we are not having a problem attracting qualified employees.’’