The Canadian Autoworkers and General Motors Reach a Tentative Contract Agreement after a Day of Work Strike in Oshawa, Ontario

GM said that it reached the deal with Unifor around 1 p.m. Tuesday after workers went on strike at the Ontario facilities just after midnight. The deal recognizes employee contributions with significant pay and benefit increases and additional job security, the automaker said.

About 4,300 striking workers at 2 GM factories and a parts warehouse are returning to work on Tuesday afternoon, and will vote on a three year deal later in the day.

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.

She says that the company had initially fought them on pensions, retiree income supports and converting full-time temp workers to permanent employees over the life of the agreement.

The new agreement covers autoworkers at GM’s assembly plant in Oshawa, a powertrain plant in St. Catharines, and a parts distribution center in Woodstock.

Payne said she expects a ratification vote on the GM deal in the coming days. If approved, only Jeep maker Stellantis would be left without a contract with Unifor. Payne said she expects talks to begin soon with the company, which has the largest manufacturing footprint in Canada of the Detroit automakers.

Unifor said the deal includes pay raises of 20% for production workers and 25% for skilled trades. Workers would get 10% in general pay raises in the first year, with 2% in the second and 3% in the third. The company also agreed to restore cost-of-living pay raises starting in December of 2024. Temporary workers would get pay raises, and those with at least one year of service would get permanent jobs.

Source: Canadian autoworkers and General Motors reach a tentative contract agreement

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The union had a lot of leverage because the factory in Oshawa is able to make Chevrolet pickup cars around the clock, according to Payne.

The UAW rejects that argument. It contends that the layoffs are unjustified and were imposed as part of the companies’ pressure campaign to persuade UAW members to accept less favorable terms in negotiations with automakers. The factories that have been affected by layoffs are in six states: Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana and New York.

Unifor members at a fourth GM facility, the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, are covered by a separate bargaining agreement and did not strike.

The Ford plant, which was the most profitable in the world, was taken down by surprise. The factory makes some of the most expensive models of pickup trucks and SUVs.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that the union has waited long enough “but Ford hasn’t gotten the message” to bargain for a fair contract.

If they can’t understand that after a couple of weeks, the 8,700 workers should be able to shut down the plant.

The strike came nearly four weeks after the union began its walkouts against General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis on Sept. 15, with one assembly plant from each company.

The statement from Ford called the strike expansion reckless but said it wasn’t surprising since the UAW leadership wanted to keep Detroit auto makers hobbled with industrial chaos.

A union set up a meeting with a Ford executive at their headquarters on Wednesday, and the man asked if the company had another offer.

There is disagreement regarding battery plants in the negotiations. The UAW wants those plants to be unionized to assure jobs and top wages for workers who will be displaced by the industry’s ongoing transition to electric vehicles.

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Fain responded by saying, if that’s the company’s best offer, “You just lost Kentucky Truck Plant,” said the executive. The meeting only lasted about 15 minutes, he said.

The significant escalation against Ford shows that Fain is trying to increase pressure on the company, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who follows labor issues.

He said Ford and the others had made concessions and raised wage offers. The companies, he said, “may have reached their resistance points to varying degrees.” Executives, he said, have bottom line positions they can’t cross in terms of staying competitive with other automakers.

The union’s move doesn’t make him optimistic that there will be a quick end to the strikes. “I think the issues that remain on the table are quite thorny,” he said, pointing to union demands that all workers get defined benefit pensions and health insurance when they retire.

More workers will be laid off at non-striking plants as the strikes widen. Once metal stamping factories that supply multiple assembly plants have produced enough parts for non-striking facilities, the companies would likely shut them down.

$500 a week is given to striking workers by the union. Everyone who is laid off would get the state unemployment aid, which is between $500 a week and $15,000 a year.

Patrick Anderson,CEO of the Anderson Economic Group in Lansing, Michigan said that a company that manufactures parts for the automobile industry may lay off workers but may not report them publicly.

A survey of parts supply companies by a trade association called MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers found that 30% of members have laid off workers and that more than 60% expect to start layoffs in mid-October.