UPDATE
Oct 10, 2023 5:18 PM CDT
General Motors and the union representing Canadian auto workers reached a tentative contract agreement Tuesday, ending a strike that began just after midnight. About 4,300 striking workers at two GM factories and a parts warehouse returned to work Tuesday afternoon and will vote on the three-year deal later. Lana Payne, president of the Unifor union, said that, when faced with the strike, GM had no choice but to follow a pattern agreement reached earlier with Ford, and the deal includes "all items that the company had initially fought us on," the AP reports. GM said that it reached the deal with Unifor around 1pm. The deal includes significant pay and benefit increases and additional job security, the automaker said.
Oct 10, 2023 5:30 AM CDT
Auto workers walked off the job at three General Motors facilities in Canada early Tuesday after failing to reach agreement with the automaker, reports the AP. Their union, Unifor, represents more than 4,200 workers at the plants. They had warned they would begin a strike if no agreement was struck with GM by midnight local time. "We made some progress throughout the day, but sadly not enough," Unifor President Lana Payne told reporters. She said the union was still speaking with the company, but there was "a lot of ground that needed to be covered to reach a tentative agreement." The action came after Unifor workers ratified a new three-year labor contract with Ford late last month. They are seeking a similar agreement with GM.
"This strike is about General Motors stubbornly refusing to meet the pattern agreement. The company knows our members will never let GM break our pattern—not today, not ever," Payne said. She said GM was not meeting the union's demands for pensions, support for retired workers, and steps to transition temporary workers to permanent, full-time jobs. General Motors Corp. said that while "very positive progress" had been made, the company was disappointed not to be able to win an agreement. "We remain at the bargaining table and are committed to keep working with Unifor to reach an agreement that is fair and flexible for our 4,200 represented employees at Oshawa Assembly & Operations, St. Catharines Propulsion Plant, and Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre," said a rep.
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Payne said earlier that the union had a lot of bargaining leverage with GM because the factory in Oshawa, Ontario, is working around the clock to build profitable Chevrolet pickups. However, in her remarks to reporters she said "demographics," presumably of an aging work force, were a major hurdle. Workers at Ford of Canada ratified a new deal late last month that raises base hourly pay for production workers by almost 20% over three years. Unifor had earlier avoided going on strike against the Detroit automakers, unlike its US counterpart, the United Auto Workers. Its members at a fourth GM facility, the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, are covered by a separate bargaining agreement and remain at work, the Unifor statement said. (More General Motors stories.)
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