Members of the Unifor labor union in Canada have voted to ratify a new three-year collective agreement with GM. The new agreement affects roughly 4,300 workers at three GM facilities, including the GM Oshawa Assembly plant, the St. Catharines Powertrain plant, and the Woodstock Parts Distribution Center. The initial tentative agreement was accepted following a brief 13-hour strike called after the previous labor contract expired last week.
Unifor President Lana Payne
“I am proud of our members at General Motors for their solidarity throughout their brief but decisive strike action and for ratifying this contract that contains life-changing improvements,” said Unifor President Lana Payne. “This agreement reflects true collective bargaining. Our goal was to bring more fairness and equity to auto workplaces and to lift everyone up. We did that.”
Unifor members ratified the new agreement with 80.5 percent of voting members giving it the green light. The agreement follows the pattern agreement initially negotiated between Unifor and Ford of Canada, and includes a reduction to the wage progression grid from eight to four years, a change that’s particularly impactful for workers at the Oshawa Assembly plant, where most workers were hired in the past few years since the plant was reopened in 2021.
Unifor members with one and two years seniority will receive an hourly pay increase of 63 percent to 73 percent over the life of the agreement, while workers at the top of the scale will enjoy a 20-percent wage increase for production workers and a 25-percent wage increase for Skilled Trades. Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) has also been reinstated for the first time since 2008. In addition, hundreds of temporary part-time workers across all three GM facilities will be converted to permanent full-time positions. The new agreement will expire on September 20th, 2026.
Workers at the three GM facilities were called on to strike after the automaker and Unifor failed to find an agreement by the October 9th deadline. The strike was ended 13 hours later after a tentative agreement was found, with work resuming at all three facilities that afternoon.
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Comments
At least canada knows what is fair, and they don’t get overly greedy like the states. And now they are back to work, good for them.
This article would have been better if it had listed the actual wage rates, not just the percentage of change from the prior contract. Even better still if the article had provided currency conversions between US and Canadian dollars.
I am glad that the GM Oshawa plant received huge wage increases, because the Oshawa plant competes with the Flint MIchigan plant to build Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks. The majority of Oshawa employees were temporary employees, the lowest tier of the 8 year scale. In the US, that temporary tier at GM meant wages of $16.75. I don’t know the Canadian equivalent, but assume it is pretty close. At the Flint plant, about 80% of the employees are at the highest wage rate of about $31 per hour. Clearly, it was cheaper to build a truck in Oshawa Ontario than in Flint, only a couple of hundred miles away. Now, within the next few years the wages will be similar if not identical. That allows US workers to be more competitive.
Yeah but it’s really retirees under the bus again ready to stick up for your retirees. GM