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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Ford, CAW reach deal

Union continues talks with GM, Chrysler

By: Allison Jones

Posted: 09/18/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), called an agreement with Ford �a damn good deal� at a news conference in Toronto Monday. (CP)

TORONTO -- The Canadian Auto Workers union struck a tentative four-year deal with Ford on Monday and extended talks with General Motors and Chrysler, putting off a threatened strike as a midnight deadline loomed.

"It's a damn good deal in these economic times," CAW president Ken Lewenza said of the Ford deal. "It is a damn good deal."

The agreement will give 800 laid-off Ford employees the opportunity to get back to work, partially through the creation of 600 new jobs at the automaker's Canadian operations. Most of the new positions will be at its Oakville, Ont., assembly plant, in two stages of hiring, Lewenza said.

There are no base wage increases during the life of the agreement, which lasts until September 2016, but each employee will receive $2,000 a year in the second, third and fourth years of the contract to cover cost-of-living increases and a $3,000 ratification bonus.

The union is asking Chrysler and GM to accept the deal as a pattern settlement.

Talks with the two automakers continued Monday, with the union announcing just before 9 p.m. ET that all sides agreed to continue talking, putting off the threatened midnight strike.

"We think it makes common sense that we give both Chrysler and General Motors the opportunity to do their due diligence on the collective agreement we established at Ford," Lewenza said.

He called the continued talks a "good-faith gesture."

After the tentative deal with Ford was inked on Monday afternoon, Lewenza had said the gap between the union and the two remaining companies was "wide."

"If they come and say, 'We can work within the confines of that pattern agreement,' we can do the job real quickly," he said.

After the announcement of the Ford agreement, GM said it was still committed to reaching a deal that will "improve GM Canada's competitive position for the future," but it wouldn't comment on the Ford deal. Chrysler said it was not "presently offering any comment."

Lewenza said pattern bargaining -- in which a deal is reached with one company that forms the basis for agreements with the others -- is necessary because it removes wages from the number of competitive pressures the companies face.

A union proposal to lower wages for new hires -- who will make 60 per cent of full pay -- but allow them to reach full pay after working for 10 years is part of the deal. The union agreed to extend the wage progression scale from six years, Lewenza said.

There's no change to pensions for active members, but new hires will be under a defined hybrid plan, which sees a contribution from the employees and a guaranteed contribution from the employer, Lewenza said.

Chrysler earlier responded to the CAW's move to focus on Ford by saying they were "very concerned" that Ford wasn't in the best position to lead negotiations because it has reduced its footprint in Canada in recent years.

-- The Canadian Press

More cars drive off local lots

MANITOBA posted its seventh consecutive year-over-year increase in new vehicle sales in July, although sales were down from the previous month, according to Statistics Canada figures released Monday.

The raw numbers, which haven't been adjusted to take seasonal variations in sales into account, show 4,724 new cars and trucks were sold in July in Manitoba. That was a 7.8 per cent increase from the 4,382 sold in July 2011, but was down 6.4 per cent from the 4,921 units sold in June of this year.

The truck category, which includes trucks, vans, sport utility vehicles and buses, saw the biggest July gains, at 9.8 per cent (3,188 units versus 2,904 a year earlier). Car sales were up a more modest 3.9 per cent to 1,536 units from 1,478 in July 2011.

Statistics Canada said July's tally put unit sales nine per cent ahead of last year's pace after the first eight months of the year -- 30,468 versus 27,945.

-- staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 18, 2012 $sourceSection0

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