TORONTO (AP) - The president of the Canadian Auto Workers union said late
Wednesday he's close to agreeing to new labor deals with General Motors Corp.
and Chrysler LLC.
CAW President Buzz Hargrove said both companies are willing to meet the
pattern of the deal the union reached with Ford Motor Co. last month. But
Hargrove said they still have a number of small tough issues to resolve. He
declined to say what they are.
He said he hopes to have tentative agreements by Thursday morning. The
membership would still need to vote to ratify them.
The current contracts covering about 22,000 GM and Chrysler workers expire
in September.
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 didn't 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 dollar is almost at par with the greenback and
U.S. auto industry has fewer health care costs because of recent agreements.
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's is prepared to give GM more
taxpayers' money for new projects, despite the layoffs.
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