GM workers ratify contract

Unifor members working at General Motors facilities in St. Catharines, Oshawa and Woodstock have ratified an agreement that secures investment in all three communities, converts 700 precarious jobs and offers wage improvements.

“The gains made in this agreement are historic and more than what has been achieved in the past 10 years,” said Unifor national president Jerry Dias. “Unifor has shown what is possible when workers have a union, and a united bargaining committee to speak on their behalf.”

The new agreement was ratified by 64.7 per cent overall from all three locals. The breakdown is 66.5 per cent from members in production and 56.5 per cent by skilled trades. The ratified deal with GM sets the pattern for contract talks that begin with Fiat-Chrysler Automotives today. Once a deal with FCA is ratified, negotiations will begin with Ford.

“I am proud to say today that we have secured a bright future, one that includes good full-time jobs with benefits and wage increases for future generations, and a solid economic base for our communities and all our members,” said the Unifor- GM master bargaining committee chair, Greg Moffat of Local 222.

The new agreement with 4,000 Unifor members includes: $554-million in investment in Canada that provides stability to St. Catharines as volume is shifted to the plant, job security with new product for Oshawa as it begins to produce cars and trucks, and improvements at the parts distribution centre in Woodstock; Conversion of 700 temporary

positions to permanent full-time job status including benefits, a pension, a signing bonus, a $1,000

lump sum increase and wage progression; General wage increases totalling

four over the life of the contract and a lump sum totalling $12,000 over four years; A signing bonus of $6,000; An improved new hire program that provides thousands of dollars of new money in income earnings.

In total, a typical full-time production-line worker will make $19,063

extra over the life of the contract.

“In the negotiations with GM, the union set clear objectives which we reached, including our top priority to secure investment and product for our members and the future of the auto industry,” Dias said. “With

I am proud to say today that we have secured a bright future.” Greg Moffat of Local 222m, Unifor-GM master bargaining committee chair

Fiat-Chrysler and Ford we will accept nothing less.”

In St. Catharines, GM will spend $150 million to extend the life of the

existing engine module built there, bring in a new, more fuel-efficient version of that engine and introduce a next-generation transmission. The parts-distribution centre in Woodstock will receive a $4-million investment.

GM will spend $400 million to upgrade the flex line and is expected to bring new products to the plant, although it has not yet been revealed which vehicles it will choose. Two of the vehicles currently built at the plant, the Cadillac XTS and the Chevrolet Impala, will also see their lives extended.

New hires will make more each year as they work their way up to the top of the pay scale, including wage increases in each of their first three years of employment. Under the old contract, workers didn’t receive their first pay increase until their fourth year.

The most controversial aspect of the new contract is a stipulation that new hires will belong to a defined-contribution pension plan instead of the existing definedbenefit plan. Workers will be required to contribute four per cent of their paycheque, which GM will match. If workers choose to add an additional one per cent, GM will contribute another two per cent.

The contract also includes a $1,500 lump-sum payment for former workers who retired before 1987.

For more information and background, go to www.unifor.org/autotalks16 or follow @Autotalks16.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers, including 23,050 at the Detroit Three. —