Unifor, GM reach tentative deal, putting strike action ‘on hold’

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 ($7,357 USD) for full-time workers and a C$4,000 bonus ($2,942 USD) for temporary part-timers is also included.

Unifor said the company made one concession the union had pointed to as holding up talking in the final hours before Monday’s 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.

Unifor, in a letter sent to the rank-and-file, also disclosed these additional details about the tentative agreement:

• General wage increases will work like this: 10 percent in year one, 2 percent in year two and 3 percent in year three.
• A reactivation of the cost-of-living allowance, or COLA, in December 2024.
• Workers’ wage progression gets reduced from eight years down to four years.
• The start rate for temporary part-time and production workers increases from C$24.26 ($17.86 USD at the current exchange rate) to C$29.67 ($21.84 USD) and hour, further increasing to C$30.26 within 12 months, and C$31.16 by the end of the agreement.
• The conversion of all full-time temporary workers with at least one year of seniority at ratification to permanent status.
• Improvements to all pension plans, though the amount wasn’t disclosed.
• Mandatory company contributions to the defined contribution plan increase from 4 percent to 7 percent. The union said defined contribution plan members “will transition to a new defined benefits style pension for current plan members and all new hires on January 1, 2025.”
• A new quarterly payment “unique to Canadian retirees, called the Universal Health Care Allowance.” These quarterly payments will continue in each year of the three-year agreement, the union said.
• Two new additional paid holidays: Family Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

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.

The union told members ratification meetings will be scheduled “in the coming days.”

GM shares finished Tuesday priced at $31.48, up 1.59 percent.