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GM Canada and union agree to 3-year contractPosted by Retirement on: 2005-09-28 07:03:59 in category:
Stocks & Securities [ Print | Permalink / 0 Comment(s) ] By Ian Austen The New York Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005 OTTAWA General Motors of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers have reached a three-year contract, narrowly avoiding a strike. The last-minute scramble late Tuesday to produce an agreement was in contrast to confident expectations of a deal earlier in the day. The union said that although the tentative agreement, offering only modest wage and benefit increases, had been reached, talks would continue, to try to resolve some minor issues. "This has been a very difficult and challenging set of negotiations with General Motors," Buzz Hargrove, the union's president, said during a conference call. "The challenges we faced here didn't happen by chance. They happened because of the declining market share of General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler." A spokesman for GM in Toronto had no immediate comment. The agreement includes at least 1,000 job reductions, some of which will be layoffs, Hargrove said. That marks a difference from the contracts with Ford and Chrysler, which specified that job reductions would come through attrition or early retirement. After a bargaining session that began Monday night and stretched into the next morning, the union was so confident of successfully finishing talks that it scheduled a news conference for midmorning Tuesday. But that session was never held after being repeatedly postponed throughout the day. "At 11 this morning we were 90 percent certain that we were going to have a settlement," said Jim Pari, a spokesman for the union. But during the morning's negotiations, he said, "there were some issues that we thought were settled that came back up again." The crucial issue was the future of about 1,020 jobs at a components factory in St. Catharines, Ontario, as well as a smaller number of positions at the company's main parts warehouse in Woodstock, Ontario, which employs about 300 people. As was the case with the union's agreements with Ford and Chrysler, the GM agreement provides for a wage increase of about 1.5 percent in the first year and about 1 percent in each of the subsequent years. The union also agreed to limits on health care payments and a reduction in dental benefits. The three contracts are somewhat at odds with the union's history. Canadian autoworkers left the United Auto Workers 20 years ago and formed a union partly because they believed the Detroit-based union was weak at bargaining. The fact that the Canadian union would accept such contracts, several analysts said, is a sign of what to expect when the UAW starts negotiating contracts that expire in 2007. "The successful CAW negotiations probably offer a prediction for the UAW negotiations in the sense that it's highly unlikely the UAW will do better," said William Pochiluk, president of AutomotiveCompass, a consulting firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "This is a classic trade-union stance," said Norman Solomon, dean of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. "You protect the wages of the workers who are still there, and when there's job loss, you do it by attrition. "That's a very different approach to what the CAW has done in the past." Solomon, who studies Canadian labor negotiations and formerly taught at the University of Windsor in Ontario, added that the two unions increasingly were at odds. "Now I don't think Buzz Hargrove would say this," Solomon said, "but the CAW and the UAW are really competing against each other for jobs." OTTAWA General Motors of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers have reached a three-year contract, narrowly avoiding a strike. The last-minute scramble late Tuesday to produce an agreement was in contrast to confident expectations of a deal earlier in the day. The union said that although the tentative agreement, offering only modest wage and benefit increases, had been reached, talks would continue, to try to resolve some minor issues. "This has been a very difficult and challenging set of negotiations with General Motors," Buzz Hargrove, the union's president, said during a conference call. "The challenges we faced here didn't happen by chance. They happened because of the declining market share of General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler." A spokesman for GM in Toronto had no immediate comment. The agreement includes at least 1,000 job reductions, some of which will be layoffs, Hargrove said. That marks a difference from the contracts with Ford and Chrysler, which specified that job reductions would come through attrition or early retirement. After a bargaining session that began Monday night and stretched into the next morning, the union was so confident of successfully finishing talks that it scheduled a news conference for midmorning Tuesday. But that session was never held after being repeatedly postponed throughout the day. "At 11 this morning we were 90 percent certain that we were going to have a settlement," said Jim Pari, a spokesman for the union. But during the morning's negotiations, he said, "there were some issues that we thought were settled that came back up again." The crucial issue was the future of about 1,020 jobs at a components factory in St. Catharines, Ontario, as well as a smaller number of positions at the company's main parts warehouse in Woodstock, Ontario, which employs about 300 people. As was the case with the union's agreements with Ford and Chrysler, the GM agreement provides for a wage increase of about 1.5 percent in the first year and about 1 percent in each of the subsequent years. The union also agreed to limits on health care payments and a reduction in dental benefits. The three contracts are somewhat at odds with the union's history. Canadian autoworkers left the United Auto Workers 20 years ago and formed a union partly because they believed the Detroit-based union was weak at bargaining. The fact that the Canadian union would accept such contracts, several analysts said, is a sign of what to expect when the UAW starts negotiating contracts that expire in 2007. "The successful CAW negotiations probably offer a prediction for the UAW negotiations in the sense that it's highly unlikely the UAW will do better," said William Pochiluk, president of AutomotiveCompass, a consulting firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "This is a classic trade-union stance," said Norman Solomon, dean of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. "You protect the wages of the workers who are still there, and when there's job loss, you do it by attrition. "That's a very different approach to what the CAW has done in the past." Solomon, who studies Canadian labor negotiations and formerly taught at the University of Windsor in Ontario, added that the two unions increasingly were at odds. "Now I don't think Buzz Hargrove would say this," Solomon said, "but the CAW and the UAW are really competing against each other for jobs." OTTAWA General Motors of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers have reached a three-year contract, narrowly avoiding a strike. The last-minute scramble late Tuesday to produce an agreement was in contrast to confident expectations of a deal earlier in the day. The union said that although the tentative agreement, offering only modest wage and benefit increases, had been reached, talks would continue, to try to resolve some minor issues. "This has been a very difficult and challenging set of negotiations with General Motors," Buzz Hargrove, the union's president, said during a conference call. "The challenges we faced here didn't happen by chance. They happened because of the declining market share of General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler." A spokesman for GM in Toronto had no immediate comment. The agreement includes at least 1,000 job reductions, some of which will be layoffs, Hargrove said. That marks a difference from the contracts with Ford and Chrysler, which specified that job reductions would come through attrition or early retirement. After a bargaining session that began Monday night and stretched into the next morning, the union was so confident of successfully finishing talks that it scheduled a news conference for midmorning Tuesday. But that session was never held after being repeatedly postponed throughout the day. "At 11 this morning we were 90 percent certain that we were going to have a settlement," said Jim Pari, a spokesman for the union. But during the morning's negotiations, he said, "there were some issues that we thought were settled that came back up again." The crucial issue was the future of about 1,020 jobs at a components factory in St. Catharines, Ontario, as well as a smaller number of positions at the company's main parts warehouse in Woodstock, Ontario, which employs about 300 people. As was the case with the union's agreements with Ford and Chrysler, the GM agreement provides for a wage increase of about 1.5 percent in the first year and about 1 percent in each of the subsequent years. The union also agreed to limits on health care payments and a reduction in dental benefits. The three contracts are somewhat at odds with the union's history. Canadian autoworkers left the United Auto Workers 20 years ago and formed a union partly because they believed the Detroit-based union was weak at bargaining. The fact that the Canadian union would accept such contracts, several analysts said, is a sign of what to expect when the UAW starts negotiating contracts that expire in 2007. "The successful CAW negotiations probably offer a prediction for the UAW negotiations in the sense that it's highly unlikely the UAW will do better," said William Pochiluk, president of AutomotiveCompass, a consulting firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "This is a classic trade-union stance," said Norman Solomon, dean of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. "You protect the wages of the workers who are still there, and when there's job loss, you do it by attrition. "That's a very different approach to what the CAW has done in the past." Solomon, who studies Canadian labor negotiations and formerly taught at the University of Windsor in Ontario, added that the two unions increasingly were at odds. "Now I don't think Buzz Hargrove would say this," Solomon said, "but the CAW and the UAW are really competing against each other for jobs." Homepage Other community sites http://www.business-business.biz Please support our sponsors: To design your custom retirement plan. http://www.retirement-plan.us For planning IRA rollovers. http://www.ira-rollover.us Professional asset allocation and the wonders it can do. http://www.asset-allocation.us Professional money management- Nationally ranked performance. http://www.roth-ira.us Managers selected to fit your needs. http://www.money-managers.us |
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