Canadian autoworkers taking on GM first

Union plans to hammer out one contract, save tougher talks for DaimlerChrysler, Ford

By BERNARD SIMON New York Times
Friday, September 6, 2002

Toronto -- The union representing 46,000 Canadian autoworkers chose General Motors on Thursday as its target -- the company it will negotiate a new labor contract with first, to set a pattern for contracts with the others.

But the union indicated that its most serious issues are with Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler, not GM.

Announcing the choice to cheering union officials at a Toronto hotel, Buzz Hargrove, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, said that job security remained the union's top concern even though car and truck sales are strong.

"Restructuring, job losses, layoffs and closures are still threats that we're having to face in our bargaining," Hargrove said. But the union will also seek "substantial" wage increases, he said.

The American and Canadian operations of the Big Three automakers are closely integrated, with assembly lines in each country producing vehicles for the entire North American market. But for the first time in many years, bargaining on new labor contracts will not take place simultaneously in the United States and Canada. The current contracts in Canada are for three years, and expire at midnight on Sept. 17; the United Auto Workers' contracts in the U.S. are for four years, and expire in 2003.

Next year's talks in the U.S. are expected to be centered less on job security and more on pension and health care costs, analysts said.

In both countries, the autoworkers generally negotiate first with the company where, in Hargrove's words, "we believe we can get the best agreement with the least amount of sacrifice."

Relations between the Canadian union and GM had improved markedly in recent years, Hargrove said, though the 20,000 GM workers he represents will nonetheless strike immediately if there is no new contract in place when the old one expires.

Few analysts expect that to happen.

"There's going to be a lot of noise, but it will be settled amicably," said Dennis DesRosiers, an industry consultant in Toronto. "General Motors is in a position where they are very profitable and have good labor relations."

For its part, GM is "confident that we'll be able to come an agreement that meets the needs of employees, the CAW and the competitive environment in the industry," said Richard James, a company spokesman. The Canadian Auto Workers last chose GM as its negotiating target in 1984.

By contrast, "Ford and DaimlerChrysler are in a very defensive mode right now," said Richard Cooper, executive director of J.D. Power & Associates' automotive consultancy in Toronto.

All three manufacturers have recently announced plant closings in Canada. Last month, GM shut down a plant at Ste. Therese, Quebec, that built Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird sports cars, eliminating 1,400 jobs.

But the union agreed to the closure of the plant, in part because GM was expanding elsewhere in Canada, adding a shift at its Oshawa plant east of Toronto to build more Buick Impalas and announcing plans to invest $191 million there to start making a new midsize Pontiac model.

Ford has said it will close a pickup-truck assembly line at Oakville, west of Toronto, next year, a bigger concern for the union. But "Ford is not in a position to be overly generous right now," said J.D. Power's Cooper.
 

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