April 26 (Reuters) - Daimler Truck agreed to

a new labor contract on Friday with over 7,300 hourly workers

represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) at six facilities

in the U.S. South, averting a strike at the 11th hour.

"For months, we said that record profits should mean a

record contract with no concessions," UAW President Shawn Fain

said in a late-night appearance on YouTube from Charlotte, North

Carolina, near where the company has plants.

"Our determination and solidarity has delivered," he said of

the tentative deal, which workers still must ratify.

Daimler Truck, which makes Freightliner and Western Star

trucks and Thomas Built buses, had faced the possibility of a

strike beginning at midnight ET (0400 GMT on Saturday).

Daimler Truck said in a statement: "The UAW members... will

now be asked to vote on the new contracts, and we hope to

finalize them soon, for the mutual benefit of all parties."

The deal at the German truck maker, which was spun off from

what is now automaker Mercedes, comes just three weeks

before votes on whether to join the UAW will be tallied at a

Mercedes assembly plant in Alabama.

Fain's speech on Friday started almost an hour later than

scheduled as Daimler Truck made late concessions, Fain

explained. Several times during the talks last fall with the

Detroit Three automakers - General Motors ( GM ), Ford and Stellantis ( STLA ) -

the threat of a deadline led the companies to make concessions

to avoid the strike's expansion.

Under Friday's deal, Daimler Truck workers will receive a

minimum 25% general wage increase over the four-year contract,

Fain said. That would match what workers at the Detroit Three

received.

When the deal is ratified, Fain said members will receive an

immediate 10% pay raise, followed by 3% increases six months and

12 months later.

They also will receive cost-of-living adjustments to offset

inflation and profit-sharing, both for the first time at Daimler

Truck, as well as the end of wage tiers that paid those building

buses less than those building heavy trucks, he said.

The lowest paid workers at Thomas Built will see raises of

more than $8 an hour and some skilled trades workers at that

unit will see increases of more than $17 an hour, Fain said.

The deal also includes increased job security and improved

health and safety benefits, he said.

About 96% of the Daimler Truck workers at four factories in

North Carolina, and parts warehouses in Georgia and Tennessee

had voted in March to authorize a strike.

The union had also filed unfair labor practice charges with

the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against the company,

citing violation of workers' rights and federal labor laws, and

for failing to bargain in good faith.

Since the deals last fall with the Detroit Three, the UAW

has turned its efforts to organizing non-union U.S. plants of

more than a dozen automakers.

The UAW clinched a historic victory at a Volkswagen

plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week, and

workers at a Mercedes factory in Vance, Alabama, are

going to vote on whether to join the union during the week of

May 13.