Unifor General Motors local production and skilled trades elected leadership unanimously endorsed the tentative deal on Oct. 13, and then sent it to general membership for a vote.
Unifor members at General Motors Canada voted this weekend to ratify a tentative agreement with the automaker secured last week after a brief strike.
About 4,300 members in Oshawa, St. Catharines and Woodstock, Ont. voted 80.5 per cent in favour of the deal that promises pay increases of nearly 20 per cent for longtime workers over the three-year term, a compression of the wage progression grid and bonuses of $10,000 for full-timers, among other gains.
Unifor posted the results on its website.
Union President Lana Payne said the deal offers “life-changing improvements” for members.
“This agreement reflects true collective bargaining. Our goal was to bring more fairness and equity to auto workplaces and to lift everyone up. We did that,” she said in a statement.
Unifor’s bargaining committee and GM negotiators finalized a tentative deal Oct. 10, about 12 hours after workers at the Oshawa Assembly Plant, St. Catharines Propulsion Plant and Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre set up picket lines. The short-lived strike was the first walkout for GM Canada workers governed by the union’s master agreement with the automaker since 1996.
Ahead of the membership vote, Unifor’s bargaining committee secured the unanimous endorsement of production and skilled trades leadership across locals 222, 199 and 636. Voting took place either online or at in-person ratification meetings Oct. 14 and 15, depending on the preference of the union local.
GM Canada President Marissa West said ratification of the new collective agreement is “significant news” for employees across Ontario, as well as the communities they work in. In a statement, she thanked Payne and the rest of the union bargaining team for the positive outcome.
“Together, we’ve secured a deal that recognizes the many contributions of our 4,200 represented team members through significant increases in wages, benefits, and job security, while positioning GM Canada to remain competitive in the future.”
Fitting with Unifor’s pattern bargaining strategy, the GM deal closely tracks earlier gains the union made in its agreement with Ford Motor Co. of Canada last month.
Unifor opened this round of auto talks with each of the Detroit Three Aug. 10, before selecting Ford as its initial target Aug. 29.
With three-year deals with Ford and GM locked in, the union is expected to turn its attention to reopening bargaining with Stellantis in the coming days.
Stellantis has the largest footprint of the three companies in Canada, employing about 8,200 hourly workers across nine unionized workplaces. The company is also currently building a joint venture battery cell plant in Windsor Unifor has set its sights on organizing.
