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25 October, 1999The autoworkers' union wraps up its Big Three bargaining saying their 22,000 GM members will move into the new millennium with greater hope and security.
CANADA: The Canadian Auto Workers' union has concluded its 1999 Big Three contract negotiations with a three-year agreement reached with General Motors. According to the CAW, the settlement matches the earlier economic pattern negotiated at Ford and DaimlerChrysler and provides other important gains such as special retirement incentives, major new investment in facilities, more time off the job and greater job and income security.
The company has also commited itself not to close, sell or lease the Ste. Therese, Quebec car assembly plant for the life of the contract and to look into the possibility of a new vehicle for the plant after 2002 or a joint venture with another producer. This is the only major car assembly plant in Quebec.
During the bargaining, the union forced the company to drop demands to outsource 1,300 jobs, which had been a major stumbling block for an agreement, and thus narrowly averted an all-out strike.
Also, GM has agreed to send to each of its parts suppliers a neutrality letter which emphasises the importance of a worker's democratic right to choose to join a union without the fear of intimidation or threats of job loss or plant closure.
Full details of the CAW-GM bargaining report are available on the CAW's website.
The company has also commited itself not to close, sell or lease the Ste. Therese, Quebec car assembly plant for the life of the contract and to look into the possibility of a new vehicle for the plant after 2002 or a joint venture with another producer. This is the only major car assembly plant in Quebec.
During the bargaining, the union forced the company to drop demands to outsource 1,300 jobs, which had been a major stumbling block for an agreement, and thus narrowly averted an all-out strike.
Also, GM has agreed to send to each of its parts suppliers a neutrality letter which emphasises the importance of a worker's democratic right to choose to join a union without the fear of intimidation or threats of job loss or plant closure.
Full details of the CAW-GM bargaining report are available on the CAW's website.