CAW strikes deal with Chrysler

Sep 27, 2012 | News

By Daniel Buzzelli

Nearly two weeks of negotiations between the CAW and the big three Detroit automakers have come to a close following a tentative deal between the CAW and Chrysler late Wednesday night. COURTESY CAW

The Canadian Auto Worker’s union has reached labour agreements with all of the big three Detroit automakers after striking a tentative deal with Chrysler on Wednesday night.

The CAW’s focus now shifts to ratifying the deals struck with General Motors and Chrysler.

“Right now we are working on ratifying the agreement at General Motors,” Shannon Devine, CAW communications director, told Humber News. “And then the results will be announced tonight.”

“From there we’ll move into the ratification meetings [with Chrysler], which will be on Saturday and Sunday,” Devine said.

Last weekend CAW workers accepted a negotiated agreement with Ford Motor Co. – which served as a base for talks with the other two automakers – by a margin of 82 per cent.

Devine said she thinks the results of the ratification votes for both GM and Chrysler will be positive. “So far we’ve been to a few of the meetings already and the mood in the room has been quite upbeat. People are pleased that we’ve been able to preserve their jobs, to gain some commitments around investment and things like that.”

Unlike the agreements reached with Ford and GM, the deal with Chrysler does not include any assurances of investment or job guarantees.

“The contract is not going to bring out the job guarantees the CAW would have liked,” Tony Faria, co-director of the office of automotive research at the University of Windsor, told the CBC. “Chances are we’re going to see Canada lose some production.”

According the Globe and Mail, Ford promised to add 650 Canadian jobs and GM pledged $675 million worth of new Canadian investment in their agreements with the CAW.

While Chrysler made no such assurances, the Globe reported that they have committed to maintain about 7,500 jobs at two assembly plants in Ontario for the next four years.