Windsor
Unifor and Ford reach tentative deal, averting strike
Contract deal comes a day after strike deadline passes
Unifor and Ford have reached a tentative contract deal, averting a strike that would have seen around 5,600 Canadian workers hit the picket lines, and providing a roadmap for an agreement for thousands of other autoworkers employed by General Motors and Stellantis.
Unifor National President Lana Payne said the deal addresses the concerns of the membership.
"We believe that this agreement will solidify the foundations on which we will continue to bargain gains for generations of autoworkers in Canada," she said in a media release just after 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The agreement was reached a day after the collective agreement with Ford employees expired.
'Financial security'
Neither the union nor Ford offered specifics on what the tentative deal entailed, as members have yet to vote on it.
However, Unifor Ford Master Bargaining Chair John D'Agnolo said the deal "makes the kind of gains our members need today and adds greater financial security for the future."
Ford Motor Company's biggest Canadian plant is in Oakville, Ont., where the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus are made.
It also has two engine plants in Southwestern Ontario's Windsor-Essex region, and parts distribution centres in Leduc, Alta., and a few other locations in Ontario.
The auto contract negotiations began in August. In an update to members last Thursday, Unifor said it had rejected two previous offers from Ford.
In addition to pensions and wages, Unifor said it was seeking a deal that offers electric vehicle (EV) transition support and secures additional investments with Ford.
Template for future negotiations
While negotiations are taking place with Ford, the union is ultimately seeking new collective agreements for members employed by each of the Detroit Three automakers.
A Ford deal will become the template for negotiations with the other two automakers, General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis, in what's known as pattern bargaining.
The Ford deal comes amid a historic autoworkers strike in the U.S., where for the first time, UAW members at each of the Detroit Three are on the picket lines, though the strike action is only affecting a portion of the U.S. plants.
The union said it was seeking wage increases of 36 per cent over four years.
Ford avoids Canadian auto strike with Unifor union deal
PUBLISHED TUE, SEP 19 2023
Michael Wayland@MIKEWAYLAND
KEY POINTS
Ford avoided having to face labor strikes on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border
The sides announced the agreement, which must still be ratified by members, hours before an extended 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
Ford and Unifor declined to immediately release details of the agreement.
Lana Payne speaks to delegates after being elected as president of UNIFOR, Canada’s largest private sector union, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Aug. 10, 2022.
Richard Lautens | Toronto Star | Getty Images
DETROIT – Ford Motor avoided having to face labor strikes on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border Tuesday night, as the automaker and Canadian union Unifor announced a tentative deal covering 5,600 autoworkers in the country’s Ontario providence.
The Detroit automaker and union announced the agreement — which must still be ratified by members — hours before an extended 11:59 p.m. Tuesday deadline. The sides extended the talks by 24 hours following Ford’s last-minute proposal Monday night to Unifor.
The Canadian tentative agreement was reached on day five of the United Auto Workers union initiating targeted strikes against Ford and its crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.
A Unifor strike would have impacted Ford’s Oakville Assembly Plant that produces the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers as well as two engine plants that produce V8 engines used in key products such as the Ford F-Series pickups and Mustang muscle car.
2024 Ford Mustang
Source: Ford
Ford and Unifor declined to immediately release details of the agreement, which Lana Payne, national president of the union, said “addresses all of the items raised by members in preparation for this round of collective bargaining.”
“We believe that this agreement will solidify the foundations on which we will continue to bargain gains for generations of autoworkers in Canada,” she said in a statement Tuesday night.
Unifor, which represents 18,000 Canadian workers at the Detroit automakers, took a more traditional approach to its negotiations than its U.S. counterpart did. The Canadian union picked Ford as its “target” company instead of following the UAW’s new strategy of bargaining with all three automakers. It also announced a traditional national strike, if needed, instead of targeted ones.
The union is expected to release details of the agreement to members in the coming days, followed by a vote. If ratified, the deal will be used as a pattern for Unifor to bargain with GM and Stellantis.
Ford will now focus on its talks with the UAW. Shawn Fain, president of the union, said Monday that the union will announce additional strikes at U.S. plants if the Detroit automakers don’t make “serious progress” in negotiations by noon ET Friday.
Currently on strike are roughly 12,700 UAW workers from GM’s midsize truck and full-size van plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Canada impacted by U.S. auto strike, despite domestic deal: Industry player
, BNN Bloomberg
The head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association says Canada’s auto industry will likely still face disruptions from a strike by U.S. workers, even as a similar labour action was avoided domestically.
“We've averted, I think, a real big problem in Canada. We are potentially looking at a real big one in the U.S.,” Flavio Volpe told BNN Bloomberg in a Wednesday interview. “The industry is so integrated that we're going to have trouble either way.”
Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, reached a tentative deal with Ford Tuesday night, after extending a Monday strike deadline.
Meanwhile, around 13,000 workers at the Big Three U.S. automakers have been on strike since last week, with their union threatening to expand the action if progress is not made in labour talks with the companies by Friday.
Volpe said the strike in the U.S. will still be disruptive even after Canadian workers reached a deal.
If the U.S. strike continues into next week, production schedules in Canada will likely have to be altered, he added.
“There's a there's a Jeep plant in Toledo that's one of the ones that's been idle. There's also a Ford Bronco plant in Michigan. A lot of those parts – seats, wheels, consoles, infotainment – come from Canada,” Volpe explained.
Even if production schedules have to be changed due to the U.S. strike, Volpe said layoffs in Canada would be unlikely, but temporary work stoppages are a real possibility.
Ford, Unifor reach tentative agreement, averting strike in Canada
Unifor, the autoworkers' union in Canada, and Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday night they had struck a tentative agreement, averting a strike for the Dearborn automaker in a second North American country.
Details on the deal won't be presented until after they are shared with Unifor members at ratification meetings being held "in the near future," according to a news release. The parties early Tuesday morning had agreed to extend the talks 24 hours after the original deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday, with Unifor instructing its members to remain at work unless they received alternate instructions from the union.
“We believe that this tentative agreement, endorsed by the entire master bargaining committee, addresses all of the items raised by members in preparation for this round of collective bargaining,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement. “We believe that this agreement will solidify the foundations on which we will continue to bargain gains for generations of autoworkers in Canada.”
Ford on Monday had presented a "substantive" offer "minutes before the deadline," according to a Unifor statement sent by spokesperson Kathleen O'Keefe at the time, which also noted "members should continue to maintain strike readiness."
Payne had said on Monday if the union did strike, all of its 5,600 members at Ford would have been on the picket line at Oakville Assembly Plant, two engine plants in Windsor, parts and distribution centers, offices and technical units. Downtime at those plants could have had implications for production at plants in the United States.
“In addition to reaching a master agreement, our members at each Ford location face their own unique set of issues that needed to be resolved by our committees at the bargaining table,” Unifor Ford Master Bargaining Chair John D’Agnolo said in a statement. “This agreement makes the kind of gains our members need today and adds greater financial security for the future.”
Obtaining an agreement without a strike action juxtaposes with the United Auto Workers' negotiations strategy. Unifor's approach was more traditional, selecting a lead company to start the pattern with the threat of a national strike if discussions stalled. Meanwhile, the UAW opted to continue talks with all three of the Detroit automakers and on Friday began executing its "stand-up strike" strategy. It has sent one plant on strike from each of the companies with the risk the union could add more as soon as noon on Friday if "substantial progress" isn't made by then.
"It looks like Ford was very motivated to secure a deal and Unifor proved a willing dance partner," said Larry Savage, a labor studies professor at Brock University in Ontario. "While we don't know the details of the tentative agreement, we should expect Canadian autoworkers to have made significant gains in this round of bargaining."
The question remains if those gains, whatever they are, will be enough to have the agreement ratified by members since the UAW's "militant posture" has raised autoworker expectations, Savage said. "You can bet that the content of that deal is going to be judged relative to what UAW members are expected to secure south of the border."
The breakthrough in Canada may serve as a sort of morale booster at Ford and an incentive to get a deal done with the UAW, said Marick Masters, a management professor at Wayne State University.
“The more clarity you can bring to the situation, the better at this point in time,” he said. “A strike would have only complicated the situation in the U.S., having adverse implications for Ford and perhaps necessitating the layoff of additional workers, and at the same time, it removes that as a source of Ford’s attention. They can now focus exclusively on negotiations in the U.S.”
An agreement between Unifor and Ford ithout a strike doesn't necessarily mean the Canadian union had the superior strategy, Masters said, but the approaches do rflect the different circumstances in which the unions find themselves"Te UAW is operating in uncharted waters," he said. "The test of the wisdom of this strategy will be time. It's a risky strategy, and you're in a high-risk game. The downside is great. The upside is great. (UAW President) Shawn Fain's leadership is obviously on the line. Everything revolves around whether he gets a successful contract. If he doesn’t, he will probably have just one term in office."
Fain was the first UAW president to be elected directly by the rank-and-file. Unifor's leadership is voted upon through locally elected delegates.
"The union (Unifor) isn’t encumbered with the internal challenges the UAW has had," Masters said. The UAW "has brand new leadership at a pivotal time, which is more militant. They’re asking for a whole lot. I think they have to know that some of these issues are nonstarters. If they’re insistent on all of that along with the wage increase, in-progression and tiers, they're a long way off from an agreement."
Brock University's Savage said the unions have "overlapping priorities," but there are some key differences and Unifor's leadership could see that "gap is significant enough to make a different set of strategic choices." For example, Unifor selected Ford as its focus initially, unlike the UAW, he said. Unifor also hasn’t publicly released what it wants to see from the automakers in terms of wages and other economic gains.
"They have made some very different strategic choices,” Savage said. “It sounds like they've been in contact with one another, but there doesn't seem to be any high level of coordination.”
There also are issues that affect Unifor's negotiations to a lesser extent, Masters said. For example, the UAW wants to see all of its Detroit Three members receive retirement health care coverage. Canada, meanwhile, has a publicly funded health care system.
Additionally, the automakers have announced billions of dollars in commitments to build electric vehicles at its Canadian assembly plants. Stellantis NV is building a battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Windsor as well. In the United States, though, sites like the idled Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and Trenton Engine Complex could be at risk without product promises
The Canadian government has played a more direct role securing an electric-vehicle future for Unifor members, Masters said. Although the White House says it's sending top aids to Detroit to help broker an agreement, the U.S. federal government is more disconnected from granting subsidies and incentives to specific manufacturers.
Still, both Unifor and the UAW are seeking increased wages and improved pensions following high rates of inflation, job security and support to transition workers from building internal combustion engine vehicles and their parts to EVs.
"The contract," Masters said about Unifor's agreement, "could offer insights into with what Ford might be forthcoming in the U.S."
To the UAW, the Blue Oval has offered at least 20% wage increases over four and a half years, a four-year progression to the top wage, a $20 per hour starting wage for temporary employees and the return of a cost-of-living allowance.
Unifor's tentative agreement came as the United Auto Workers' strike against all three Detroit automakers in the United States headed toward its sixth day.
Unifor in August announced that it had selected Ford to serve as the lead company with which it would bargain to model contracts with the other automakers. Unifor represents around 18,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors Co. and Stellantis.
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