Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal

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The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal

By IAN AUSTEN

OTTAWA — The Canadian Auto Workers union reached a tentative contract deal with the Ford Motor Company of Canada on Monday just hours before a midnight strike deadline.

And Monday night, after reaching the accord, Ken Lewenza, the president of the union, said the union had extended contract negotiations with General Motors of Canada and Chrysler Canada. He warned, however, that the two automakers would face a strike unless they agreed to the same key terms as Ford.

“The gap is still miles apart because we have a tremendous amount of work,” Mr. Lewenza said. “There’s so many issues on the table it would impossible for General Motors and Chrysler’s to respond.”

The extension followed the arrival at the negotiations in downtown Toronto of two senior executives from Detroit: Al Iacobelli, the vice president for employee relations at Chrysler, and Cathy Clegg, General Motors’ vice president for labor relations.

Mr. Lewenza said the extension was intended to give the companies time to study the tentative agreement reached with Ford. If the union believes they are procrastinating, he said, it will give two automakers 24 hours notice of a strike.

“Our patience and anxieties in the workplace only have so much time,” Mr. Lewenza said.

While the union gave concessions to Ford on wages and pensions, it said it was still able to uphold its major negotiating principles. Ford agreed to gradually rehire about 600 union members who were laid off from its plants, and it committed to produce a new line of vehicles at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario.

It is a good deal in these economic times, Mr. Lewenza told a news conference. “It’s far from a carry-over agreement.”

Mr. Lewenza emphasized that the union would not budge on its traditional approach of requiring all three Detroit-based companies to accept the same key contract terms, a system known as pattern bargaining.

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