Unifor announced that General Motors is the target company to set the pattern agreement in the current round of negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers.
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This year’s round of negotiations between GM and Unifor will focus largely on preserving job commitments. Unifor began negotiations with the US automakers on August 10 and considered proposals from each company before selecting its first target.
At a Toronto news conference on Tuesday morning Unifor’s President says GM was chosen because it represents the biggest challenge with respect to getting new product investment.
Unifor wants the USA automakers to guarantee future production for its 23,000 workers in Canada.
“The strength of the auto industry in Canada is not only vital to those in the industry, but to the entire Canadian economy”, Dias said.
The stakes are particularly high in Oshawa, where the union is anxious GM has plans to close the plant. The union has made investment in Canada a top priority in this round of negotiations, to ensure the future prosperity of the auto industry in this country.
The union will be using a method called pattern bargaining where they choose a target among the three automakers to focus bargaining on and then they will use the same pattern to sign deals with the other two automakers – Ford and Fiat Chrysler – once a deal is reached with GM.
Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector, representing more than 310,000 workers, including 23,050 at the Detroit Three.
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Canada auto output fell to 13 percent of North America production previous year from about 17 percent in 2009, while output in Mexico has risen to about 20 percent, according to data from Ward’s Automotive Yearbook.
