Hargrove demands work guarantees from General Motors

Tag: General Engine

Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove says he will not sign a labour contract with General Motors Corp. unless the company pledges new vehicle and parts programs for its Ontario factories.

"We can't ratify with GM without the product commitments at all locations," including the automaker's truck and car assembly plants in Oshawa, its transmission plant in Windsor and engine factory in St. Catharines, Hargrove said yesterday.

The brinkmanship by Hargrove came after the CAW secured a new three-year labour contract with Ford Motor Co. in ratification votes held over the weekend. A final tally of the results confirmed 67 per cent of the CAW's 9,000 Ford members voted yes to the deal, the union said.

Hargrove said the union would start discussions with GM on Thursday.

Under so-called pattern bargaining at Detroit's traditional three automakers, a labour agreement struck at one company is typically used as the model for deals at the other two. The CAW will also hold an initial meeting with Chrysler today to try to trigger bargaining, Hargrove said. The union cannot strike GM or Chrysler until its collective agreement expires in September.

As part of its main goal to protect jobs, the United Auto Workers, the CAW's sister union in the United States, won guarantees from GM last year that promised specific vehicles will be built in specific U.S. plants. The deal also specified the production life cycles of the vehicles. For example, GM pledged that the Pontiac G6 would continue to be built in Orion, Mich., until 2013, according to the union.

The CAW wants a similar commitment.

GM has insisted in background discussions with some media outlets that it needs to narrow a $30.25-per-hour labour gap disadvantage its Canadian plants have against U.S. factories operated by Japanese manufacturers.

The CAW has rejected that comparison. It says the new Ford deal brings costs generally in line with those of the UAW at about $60 per hour.