Unifor, the largest private sector union in Canada, is considering negotiating a new profit-sharing agreement with automakers GM, Ford and Stellantis.
According to a report from Automotive News, if an agreement is reached, it would be the first time Unifor has ever made this type of arrangement. Negotiations, which cover 20,000 workers from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis assembly and powertrain plants, are expected to begin sometime in August 2023.
“We are asking our research department to do a deep dive into what that looks like,” said president of Local 444 Dave Cassidy. “There’s a lot of discussion around, is it good? Is it bad? The devil is in the detail.”
This development comes hot on the heels of unprecedented profit-sharing checks that Stellantis’ hourly workers are expected to receive this year. In fact, Stellantis workers are en route to receive an average of $14,760 USD in profit-sharing checks, with GM and Ford workers following at $12,750 USD and $9,176 USD, respectively.
It’s worth noting that while each automaker has different techniques to calculate profit-sharing amounts, generally, compensation is based off the number of hours worked.
Speaking of GM workers’ $12,750 profit-sharing checks, roughly 42,300 employees are qualified to receive compensation. As reference, United Auto Workers (UAW) and General Motors signed an agreement back in 2019 that stipulated that the Detroit-based automaker would pay hourly workers $1,000 in profit-sharing for every $1 billion in profits GM made in the North American market. This means that the company earned nearly $13 billion in North America during the 2022 calendar year.
In her January 31st, 2023 fourth-quarter (Q4) letter to shareholders, General Motors CEO Mary Barra stated that “our eligible U.S. hourly employees earned record profit sharing totaling $500 million, which brings the three-year total to $1.2 billion.” She added that the workers’ “hard work helped us deliver industry-leading initial quality and meet strong customer demand.”
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM employment news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
No Comments yet