General Motors of Canada Ltd. must produce new products at its plants, including a car operation in Oshawa, or it won't get a new contract with workers, says union leader Buzz Hargrove.
Fresh off weekend ratification of a pattern-setting contract at Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd., Hargrove said yesterday that he expects GM to match the three-year deal and also make commitments on new models and components.
"We can't ratify with GM without the product commitment at all locations," said Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers.
He told reporters CAW and GM negotiators will start talks on Thursday and hope to resolve any issues in a few days, because Ford has already set the pattern under traditional Big Three bargaining.
Hargrove said parent General Motors Corp. made product commitments to the United Auto Workers in the United States last fall, and he expects the same assurances here.
The union, which represents about 13,000 GM workers, is looking for long-term transmission work at the Windsor operation, extra parts output at plants in St. Catharines and additional models at a new flexible manufacturing complex in Oshawa.
GM will build the Camaro sports car at the Oshawa complex but has not identified any other models for production.
The company expects the Camaro to generate significant demand, but the complex needs other cars to justify its huge investment.
In recent months, local union officials have said they fear GM will use commitments for any further models in Oshawa as a bargaining chip in talks.
About 2,000 union members are on layoff at GM, and the company plans to cut another shift and about 1,000 jobs at the Oshawa truck plant this fall.
A GM spokesperson could not be reached for comment on the issue of product commitments and whether the Ford pact meets GM's goals in lowering labour costs.
GM of Canada is pushing to eliminate a $30 an hour gap in labour costs with non-unionized, Japanese-based automakers in the U.S. south, but Hargrove said that goal is unrealistic.
"The rhetoric and the reality are two different things," he said. "We believe General Motors will meet this pattern, and they'll do it once they understand, as Ford did, that this is a very, very major step by our union to try to assist in the problems the companies face."
Ford said it expects to save labour costs because of a wage freeze, a temporary halt to cost of living payments, reduction in vacation pay, more sharing of health-care expenses and lower starting wages and benefits for new employees under the contract.
However, Stacey Allerton Firth, Ford's chief negotiator, said in an interview it is difficult at this point to estimate the savings the new contract will generate.
Hargrove said CAW and GM officials disagreed on some "numbers" during a union presentation yesterday morning but would not elaborate on the differences.
"It's nothing we felt, or GM felt, were insurmountable," Hargrove noted.
GM's current contract with the CAW expires in mid-September.
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