“The bottom line is I’m feeling encouraged by the way talks are going,” the union leader in talks with GM over a new contract said on Monday.
All issues were on the table in negotiations as the union pushed to secure new investment ahead of a midnight strike deadline, Reuters reported.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Unifor and GM, which resumed talks early on Monday, have been divided over union demands that GM commit to building new vehicle models at its Oshawa, Ontario, plant.
Unifor national president Jerry Dias told Reuters the two sides had worked through the night and that he was heading back into talks after giving a brief update to its membership.
“We’re kicking around all kinds of concepts. I’m not even going to get into any detail because it’s incredibly sensitive at this moment,” he said.
“Everything is on the table right now. We’re talking about everything.”
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataThe two sides are discussing economics and the entire scope of what needs to be done to pull together a successful agreement, he added.
Dias reiterated his position that the union would not extend its strike deadline.
Without a deal, the union’s 3,900 GM members would have a legal right to strike at midnight on Tuesday.
GM Canada is focused on working with Unifor to reach a “mutually beneficial and competitive new agreement,” spokeswoman Jennifer Wright told Reuters in an email earlier Monday.
A four-year contract covering the workers of GM, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ford in the province of Ontario expires on Monday. The union chose GM as its strike target for contract talks, with GM’s deal setting the pattern for the other manufacturers that are expected to sign similar deals.
Reuters noted contract talks could save 2,500 jobs at GM’s Oshawa car assembly, or take the plant one step closer to closure. The automaker was already on the verge of shutting one of two assembly lines at its Oshawa plant, with several vehicles either produced in another country or expected to move in 2017.
There are no obvious products that would go into the Oshawa plant. The automaker has said it would only make future product decisions after a labour deal.
The contract talks cover two GM plants in Ontario, vehicle assembly in the city of Oshawa near Toronto and a powertrain plant in St. Catharines, near Niagara Falls.
Canada has been struggling to get new investments from automakers in its once-thriving vehicle assembly industry, losing out to the southern United States and lower-cost Mexico, Reuters noted.
Dias had said earlier thousands of factory employees would strike at the two GM plants if the sides missed the Monday midnight deadline for a new contract, threatening to disrupt the supply of engines that go into the company’s SUVs.
According to a Dow Jones report, GM’s production of finished vehicles at Oshawa, near Toronto, in Canada represents only a modest slice of the company’s sprawling manufacturing footprint in North America but a strike would affect an engine and transmission plant in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls, which built over 500,000 engines last year, for 15% of the vehicles GM sold in the US last year, making the facility a potential choke point if production were suspended long enough.
Dias told Dow Jones several weeks of formal talks with GM officials hadn’t resulted in “anything meaningful” on the union’s top goal: securing commitments for future production at the two Canadian plants.
Extensions are common in labour negotiations but Dias had appeared uninterested in dragging out talks that he characterised as slow going. “The reality is we’ve chosen GM as the target, and there’s going to be a strike,” Dias told Dow Jones, saying he won’t extend the contract beyond the Monday deadline. “‘At some time or another, somebody is going to bend. It’s not going to be me.”
Dow Jones said St. Catherines’ output includes V8 engines for most of GM’s big SUVs – the Chevrolet Suburban, Cadillac Escalade and others. Built in Arlington, Texas, and typically sold near the higher-end of the market, full-size SUVs are among the company’s biggest moneymakers.
The 1,400-employee St. Catharines plant also makes smaller V6 engines fitted in several models across GM’s brands, including the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups that have been hot sellers since they were introduced two years ago. In addition, the factory makes a transmission used in the Chevy Equinox crossover, GM’s second top seller in the US.
Analysts told Dow Jones GM could scramble to fire up contingency production at other factories; each engine and transmission made in St. Catharines is made in at least one other GM plant in North America. Dias, however, said he believed United Auto Workers union members in the US would “stand in solidarity” with Unifor and potentially thwart efforts to replace the lost engine production.
UAW president Dennis Williams told the Detroit Free Press last week that the union would support Unifor in its GM negotiations, without discussing specifics.
The relatively small volumes coming from the Oshawa plant and GM’s redundant supply of engines and transmissions made in St. Catharines gives the company some leverage in the negotiations, LMC Automotive analyst Jeff Schuster told Dow Jones. “It’s a risky tone from the union,” he added.
According to Dow Jones, IHS Automotive estimates a strike would cost GM about 2,000 vehicles a day from Oshawa. GM made nearly 140,000 light vehicles at that plant in the first eight months of the year, about 6% of its North American vehicle production, according to WardsAuto.com.
Unifor selects GM as target company for Detroit Three talks
