TORONTO (AP) - 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, but those
advantage no longer exist as the Canadian dollar is almost at par with the U.S.
dollar.
Ken Lewenza, head of CAW's Chrysler bargaining team, called negotiations
tough late Wednesday.
"We're not dealing with companies that have a lot of cash here. We're
dealing with companies that are in market decline," Lewenza said.
GM recently announced the closure of a plant in Windsor, Ontario. About
1,400 workers will lose their jobs. GM also recently announced 900 job losses at
a plant in Oshawa, Ontario.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he is prepared to give GM more
taxpayers' money for new projects, despite the layoffs.
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