The president of Canada’s largest private sector union says the challenging economic climate has empowered workers to make bigger asks in bargaining in order to address the growing cost of living expenses.

Earlier this week, Unifor reached a tentative agreements with Stellantis and the St. Lawrence Seaway, while also recently ratifying deals with General Motors and Ford.

While terms of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Stellantis deals have not yet been disclosed, the other auto contracts each came with raises topping 25 per cent in some cases, with protections for the shift to electric vehicles and other improvements.

“This is a very extraordinary time to be bargaining for workers, there's no doubt about it,” Unifor president Lana Payne told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview.

“The economic climate is raising expectations for workers, whether it's the cost of living, whether it's interest rate hikes, all of these things are making people's individual circumstances tougher and that clearly spills over into the bargaining table.”

When it comes to the auto deals, Payne said the agreements are precedent-setting for the industry and argued that they helped end the United Auto Workers strikes in the U.S.

“That also helped in many ways what our UAW friends were trying to achieve as well south of the border,” Payne said.

“Many of the elements around trying to reduce the progression grid, getting cost of living allowance increases built into the collective agreement, these were things that we were able to establish in that first agreement.”

Payne called the recent slew of negotiations a “marathon” as the union awaits the vote on the Stellantis deal, which is expected over the weekend. 

“These deals are very comprehensive,” she said. 

“I've explained that there are improvements across the board, from pensions to wages and of course, the big issue for us – particularly in auto right now – is what's happening around the transition to electric vehicles and making sure that our members are protected during that transition period.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2023.