Unifor, GM reach tentative deal, putting Canadian strike action 'on hold'

Canadian auto union Unifor has reached a tentative agreement with General Motors Canada after a strike that lasted a little more than 12 hours at three of the automaker’s Ontario plants that are key to its North American operations.

Union President Lana Payne said the company fell in line with the pattern agreement the union set last month with Ford Motor Co. of Canada after putting up stiff resistance over the long Canadian holiday weekend.  

“When faced with the shutdown of these key facilities General Motors had no choice but to get serious at the table and agree to the pattern,” she said in a statement.  

The new tentative agreement covers nearly 4,300 hourly workers at the automaker's Oshawa Assembly Plant, its St. Catharines powertrain facility and its parts distribution facility in Woodstock.

Workers set up picket lines early this morning at each location, but strikes at the three sites are now “on hold” to allow members to vote on the new deal, the union said.

Production is scheduled to get back underway immediately.

GM Canada President Marissa West said “work will resume” this afternoon following the tentative agreement.

“This record agreement ... recognizes the many contributions of our represented team members with significant increases in wages, benefits and job security while building on GM’s historic investments in Canadian manufacturing,” she said in a statement.

The deal, which must be ratified by rank-and-file members, “follows the pattern” set out in the Ford deal that was approved by a slim 54 percent majority of members Sept. 24.

It includes hourly wage increases of nearly 20 percent for longtime members over the contract’s three-year term, a path back to defined benefit pensions for all workers and a compressed wage grid that allows staff to reach top-end pay in four years as opposed to eight. A one-time C$10,000 bonus (US$7,357) for full-time workers and a C$4,000 bonus (US$2,942) for temporary part-timers is also included.

Full details of the agreement specific to GM workplaces weren’t immediately available, but Unifor said the company did make one concession the union had pointed to as holding up talking in the final hours before the Oct. 9 strike deadline.

The use of temporary full-time workers at the Oshawa Assembly Plant will be fully eliminated in favor of permanent postings by 2026 as part of the tentative agreement. In addition, upon ratification all temporary full-timers with one year of seniority will be reclassified as permanent employees. 

Jason Gale, chair of Unifor’s GM master bargaining committee, said the agreement “delivers the kind of historic pay increases our members need.”

“All members will benefit now that the pattern is in place at GM, whether they’re temporary workers, new hires or already at the top of the pay scale,” he said in a statement.

No timeline for a ratification vote was immediately available.