GM Workers in Canada Approve New Contract
September 25 2016 - 9:50PM
Dow Jones News
The union representing Canadian auto workers won approval for a
new four-year contract with General Motors Co., securing future
investment for Canada's weakening auto sector and eventually giving
GM more capacity for its profitable pickup trucks.
Nearly 65% of Unifor's rank-and-file GM members on Sunday
ratified the pact notched by union and company negotiators last
week. The deal clears the way for $544 million in investments by
GM, mostly at its vehicle assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, which
was threatened with closure by around 2019 without a commitment
from the company.
The contract, which covers about 3,900 Unifor workers,
eventually will allow GM to squeeze out more U.S. production of its
full-size pickup trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
Unifor's contract calls for about 70,000 partially assembled
pickups a year beginning in early 2018 to be shipped to Oshawa from
a GM truck plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., where they will be painted
and finished, said a union official who declined to be named.
GM has been working to boost production of its pickups—the
company's biggest moneymaker—amid record U.S. auto sales and a
sustained period of low gas prices. GM North America President Alan
Batey said in an interview last week that the company "could use
some more" pickups in its battle with Ford Motor Co. and Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram division.
The assurance of future production at the Oshawa factory and a
GM powertrain plant in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls,
had been the union's priority heading into the talks. Auto
production has flowed out of Canada in the years since the
financial downturn, as Detroit's auto makers have added jobs and
equipment in the U.S. and Mexico.
Unifor President Jerry Dias in a statement called the new GM
contract "historic" and "more than what has been achieved in the
past 10 years."
The union now will begin discussions in earnest with FCA, with
the framework of the GM agreement likely setting the parameters for
those talks. Like Unifor's approach with GM, the union will press
FCA for future production commitments, specifically at an assembly
plant in Brampton, Ontario, where the Chrysler 300 and other sedans
are made.
The GM employees will receive a 2% wage increase immediately and
another 2% in September 2019, according to a summary of the
agreement posted on the union's website. They'll also be paid
$12,000 Canadian (about US$9,100) in bonuses over three years, half
of which will come as a signing bonus to be paid next week.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 25, 2016 21:35 ET (01:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024