Canadian autoworkers have a tentative agreement with General Motors.
Details are expected to be released later Thursday morning during a union news conference.
"Unifor's Master Bargaining Committee has reached a tentative agreement that is being unanimously recommended for 1,700 members working at General Motors in St. Catharines, Oshawa and Woodstock, averting a strike this morning," according to a statement from Unifor.
The news comes after Unifor reached a three-year deal with Ford Motor Co. and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles that includes wage increases, bonuses and other benefits for its factory workers in Canada.
If GM's deal follows the pattern at Ford and FCA, it would include 5% hourly wage increases, a $7,250 signing bonus, $4,000 inflation bonus, shift premiums and the restoration of the 20% wage differential for skilled trades,
Earlier this week, as the strike deadline of Nov. 4 11:59 p.m. neared, GM Canada said, "GM Canada remains focused on reaching a new fair, flexible agreement for the 1,600 represented employees at our St. Catharines Propulsion Plant, the new Oshawa OEM Stamped Products and Service Operations and the Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre."
A battle fought
Unifor's bargaining with GM was preceded by an all-out war with the automaker two years ago.
On Nov. 26, 2018, GM made an unexpected announcement that it would "unallocate" product to five plants in North America. In the U.S., those were Detroit-Hamtramck, Lordstown in Ohio, Warren and Baltimore transmission plants.
In Canada, it was GM's Oshawa Assembly Plant in Ontario, about 30 miles east of Toronto. About 2,500 people worked there at that time.
Detroit-Hamtramck, now called Factory ZERO, got a reprieve in last year's contract talks and GM is spending $2.2 billion to retool it for all-electric vehicle production starting late next year. GM repurposed Warren Transmission to make facemasks this year. But GM closed Warren Transmission and Lordstown Assembly, selling the later to electric truck maker Lordstown Motors last year.
Unifor went to battle with GM on multiple fronts to save Oshawa Assembly. Dias came to GM's headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit to meet with GM leadership to try to work out a plan to save the plant.
There were protests at GM's Canada headquarters, walkouts at plants (deemed illegal under Ontario law) and television ads during the Super Bowl and Oscars. Dias also called for a boycott of the company's vehicles.
Unifor had argued that the terms of its bargaining contract with GM required the carmaker to keep the plant operating until September 2020. But GM said the collective bargaining agreement gives it the option to change its production if there is a significant disruption to the car market.
GM pointed to the decline in sedan sales and Oshawa running at just 30% capacity as reason to shutter the facility.
GM built the last of these products there in 2019:
_The last Cadillac XTS rolled off the line Sept.10.
_The last Chevrolet Impala rolled off the line Oct. 25.
_The last 2018 Chevrolet Silverado pickup rolled off the line Dec. 18.
A compromise
But Unifor got a minor victory of sorts for some workers in May 2019. At that time, Unifor and GM announced that the plant would remain in limited operations producing parts.
Today, the plant makes doors, hoods, fenders, tailgates, and deck lids, and more recently medical face masks for Health Canada to help in the coronavirus pandemic. It employs about 300 people, according to GM's website, a fraction of workers there when it was making cars.
Dias told the Free Press last month that he had demands for the upcoming talks with GM starting with GM's St. Catharines Propulsion Plant in St. Catharines, Canada, which is about 10 miles northwest of Niagara Falls. Dias said it needs more engines to build to "stabilize it in the long term." The plant makes the V6 engine, V8 engine and the GF6 transmission, which are shipped to 10 GM plants worldwide, GM's website said.
"And, we will definitely be having a conversation about Oshawa," he said in October. "We're going to push for another vehicle for Oshawa. It's not a dead dream. I don't make any wild assertions or predictions, but one thing that's for sure is we're going to do our best."
GM is building the GM Canada McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track in Oshawa. It will be completed later this year. A grand opening is planned for next spring. The track, which was announced in May 2019 at the time of GM's Oshawa Transformation Agreement, is on 55 acres on the south end of the Oshawa plant. GM invested $129 million in its Canadian operations.
Canada is GM's largest market outside of the U.S. GM employs a total of 5,300 people there and GM's Canadian Technical Centre is one of the largest automotive software development centers in Canada. It has multiple campuses, including one at Oshawa, and employs a total of 900 workers, GM said.
