October 31, 2009
Ford’s Canadian Union Agrees on Concessions
OTTAWA — The Canadian Auto Workers union announced a tentative agreement on contract concessions with the Ford Motor Company of Canada on Friday while the United Automobile Workers continued its struggle for approval of a different package in the United States.
Ken Lewenza, the president of the Canadian union, dismissed suggestions that the Canadian Auto Workers would encounter similar resistance from its members when they vote on their proposed contract on Sunday.
“It’s very important to remember that this is a Canadian agreement, with a Canadian company, for Canadian workers,” Mr. Lewenza told a news conference. “The U.A.W. agreement is not relevant here.”
In the United States, Ford workers were voting against contract modifications by a margin of more than 2-to-1, according to a tabulation of results released by union officials at individual plants. Workers at Ford’s two largest union locals, in Michigan and Kentucky, were still voting late on Friday, but the deal appeared headed toward a stunning and overwhelming defeat.
The agreement with the United Automobile Workers, reached earlier this month, called for a six-year wage freeze for newly hired workers, a ban on striking over demands for higher pay or benefits, and the combination of several job classifications. If the changes were approved, all 41,000 of the company’s hourly workers would get a $1,000 bonus in March, and Ford would commit to adding or retaining jobs in some factories to do work that otherwise could be sent outside the company.
The concessions being granted by the Canadian union are far more modest and match those it gave earlier to the Canadian subsidiaries of General Motors and Chrysler. They include a wage freeze and an end to cost-of-living increases, the elimination of two weeks of paid vacation and the introduction of a $30-a-month payment to cover prescriptions and other items in a health plan that covers expenses not included under Canada’s public health care system.
In return, Mr. Lewenza said that Ford had agreed to make at least as many cars in Canada as it sold in the country, a target the company has traditionally outstripped. The company promised to introduce two new models at an assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, although they may simply be replacements for some of the four models currently built there. And Ford product plans will ensure the continued operations of two engine plants in Windsor, Ontario.
The Canadian union, however, completely failed in one major objective: keeping an assembly plant open in St. Thomas, Ontario. That factory produces aging Crown Victoria models for taxi fleets and police departments, as well as Lincoln Town Cars. The plant will close next year, eliminating about 1,600 union jobs. The Canadian union estimates that severance costs will total about 400 million Canadian dollars.
As in the United States, Ford Canada did not receive any government bailout money. Mr. Lewenza said that the company, which has about 7,000 unionized workers in Canada, repeatedly stated during negotiations that it was prepared to immediately end production in Canada unless the union agreed to concessions.
“They even said that ‘companies like Hyundai and Kia from Korea sell here without producing here, why should we be any different?’ ” Mr. Lewenza said at the news conference.
Unlike the Canadian workers, who are giving concessions to Ford for the first time, the current vote by U.A.W. members in the United States is the second time they are being asked to accept a reduced contract.
As of Friday, the deal had been rejected by 17 U.A.W. locals representing about 17,000 workers and supported by seven locals representing about 6,000 workers.
Article Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/bu...al/31auto.html
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