Canadian Auto Workers GM agree on contract
The Canadian Autoworkers and General Motors tentatively agreed to a new labor contract on Thursday.
Union spokeswoman Shannon Devine said more details will be released later.
CAW President Buzz Hargrove announced late Wednesday they were close to deals with both GM and Chrysler after both said they were willing to meet the pattern of a deal the union reached with Ford Motor Co. last month.
Devine said they are still working on a deal with Chrysler.
The current contracts covering about 22,000 GM and Chrysler workers expire in September. Any new contracts would need to be ratified with a vote by the membership.
The surprise early deal with Ford keeps the company’s labor costs essentially the same as they are now, the union said. It freezes base wages and pension costs and buys the CAW out of one week of vacation, Ford said.
But the contract did not gain Ford what it and the other automakers got from the United Auto Workers in the U.S. last fall _ a lower-tier wage for new hires of around $14 per hour, about half that of a current UAW production worker.
Industry analysts have said Ford settled early to avoid a strike at its Oakville, Ontario, factory, which makes the strong-selling Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossover vehicles that are important to Ford’s cash flow.
Canada’s auto industry long had an advantage over the U.S. industry because Canada has free health care and the Canadian dollar was weak, Auto Route but those advantage no longer exist as the Canadian dollar is almost at par with the U.S. dollar.
Tags: canadian auto workers, canadian autoworkers, canadian dollar, crossover vehicles, ford edge, free health care, labor contract, lincoln mkx crossover, new hires, oakville ontario, pension costs, united auto workers
