Following on from its tentative agreement reached with Ford Motor Company on Monday, the Canadian Auto Workers’ union has said that ongoing talks with Chrysler Group and General Motors are proving “constructive.” CAW president Ken Lewenza recently told CBC news that the union doesn’t want to force a strike at plants run by the two automakers but says it will, if it feels there is no other option. Lewenza said that the CAW extended talks with Chrysler and GM following the Ford agreement, because the union feels there is too much at risk for both the automakers and the CAW.
Chrysler and GM executives have been reviewing the deal agreed with Ford, a move which Lewenza describes as being “a good faith gesture,” though he cautioned that good faith must lead to good results at the bargaining table.
In the meantime, Ford employees are expected to ratifying the four-year deal agreed between the CAW and the automaker, that although doesn’t include wage increases, does incorporate cost of living allowances of $2,000 for the second, third and fourth years, as well as a ratification bonus of $3,000. Ford has also said it is also committed to creating 600 new jobs at its Oakville, assembly complex.
Although a Ford official described the union deal as a “unique to Canada solution that will improve the competitiveness of the Canadian operations, while providing employees the opportunity to earn a good living,” some industry analysts are arguing that the agreement reflects the weakened state of the labour union movement in Canada.
“This is certainly an indication that the CAW, like all unions, has been really constrained,” remarked Charlotte Yates, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. “They got a good deal in the context of those constraints, but it is a constraint nonetheless, because they’ve agreed to things a few years ago the CAW, I don’t think, imagined it would ever agree to.”
Despite the current slow process of negotiations, Yates believes that Chrysler and GM will ultimately arrive at similar contract agreements to the one inked out between the CAW and Ford; GM is currently being tipped as automaker most likely to reach a new agreement first.
