By Elisa
General Motors and Canadian union Unifor reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday just hours after 4,300 workers went on strike at three GM facilities.
The union said the tentative agreement follows the pattern agreement Unifor reached with Ford Motor last month and includes wage hikes of up to 25%. The strike had threatened the largest U.S. automaker’s profitable full-size truck production if it had continued.
“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,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. She added that GM agreed to items it initially fought including “pensions, retiree income supports and converting full-time temporary workers into permanent employees over the life of the agreement.”
GM said work will resume at all three facilities on Tuesday afternoon and said the deal “recognizes the many contributions of our represented team members with significant increases in wages, benefits and job security.”
The walkout by workers early on Tuesday came after Unifor said GM was “stubbornly refusing” to match the contract the labor union reached with Ford.
The walkout was set to intensify the headache faced by the automaker in the U.S. where it is racking up millions of dollars in daily losses to the United Auto Workers strike that started Sept. 15.
GM has lost 34,176 vehicles of production since the start of the UAW strike, according to an estimate by Deutsche Bank. The automaker said last week it had 442,586 vehicles in stock.
The UAW has struck two GM assembly plants in the United States and 18 parts distribution centers. GM has laid off 2,300 U.S. workers due to the impacts of the UAW strike.
Unifor has used the “pattern bargaining” approach in its talks, reaching a deal first with Ford and then expecting GM and Stellantis to match. The union said GM will now follow the pattern. The UAW, on the other hand, broke with that approach under its new leadership.
Unifor represents about 18,000 Canadian workers at Ford, GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
Unions have increasingly resorted to strikes across sectors from airlines to automakers, buoyed by a tight labor market and positive public opinion in the U.S., even though union membership has fallen.
