Employees at Fiat Chrysler's Brampton, Ontario, plant approved the new pact with the company.
Members of Unifor, the union that represents Canadian auto workers, ratified a new contract with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. with 70.1% of the eligible union members voting for the contract.
Nearly 10,000 FCA employees were eligible to vote on the deal, which included a commitment to overhaul the paint shop at the company’s assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, and as well as an immediate pay increase of 2% and bonuses during the next four years.
However, the contract left intact a two-tier wage system that requires new employees to accumulate 10 years of seniority before reaching the upper tier with the higher pay scale.
“Negotiations with FCA were tough, but I am proud that our union stood united and focused to push for the pattern agreement that our union originally achieved with GM,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “This agreement helps to shift the landscape in the auto industry and it provides a solid economic increase for all of our members and their families.”
All three agreements with FCA were ratified by a majority vote. The production and maintenance agreement that applies to workers at the Brampton, Etobicoke and Windsor assembly plants was approved with an overall vote of 70.1%, broken down as 69.1% by production and skilled trades with 73.9%.
(FCA averts strike with agreement. Click Here for the story.)
Unifor President Jerry Dias said he was pleased to continue the pattern agreement reached initially with GM on to FCA.
The security, fire and emergency services agreement was ratified with 91%, while the office, clerical and engineering unit approved the deal with an 81.7% approval. All three pacts achieve the union’s key priorities and offers financial gain for members at all three FCA plants, Dias said.
Dino Chiodo, president of Unifor Local 444, whose members work at the Windsor Assembly Plant, said he was pleased by the results.
“There’s a lot of relief that comes with getting a ratification behind you,” Chiodo said. “I think our members … understand the dollars and cents that were put into their pocket over the course of this collective agreement, with the securities that were put into place.
“It’s not perfect for everybody, but it does connect with a lot of the components that our members were hoping and asking for.”
Patterned after the contract reached with General Motors last month, the deal includes monetary gains for both veteran workers and new hires. Veteran workers receive a 4% wage increase during the life of the agreement — the first general wage hike in nine years — and $12,000 in lump sum and signing bonuses.
New hires also receive the bonuses as well as wage hikes in each year of a 10-year pay grid toward the maximum hourly rate of $35.78. Under the previous contract, new hires remained at the starting hourly rate of about $20.42 for the first three years.
The deal also includes a company pledge to invest $325 million to rebuild the paint shop at FCA’s Brampton assembly plant, which employs about 3,500 workers who build the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Challenger and Charger.
(Click Here for more about the deal between Unifor and GM in Canada.)
Dias has said the paint shop upgrade, to begin next summer, is key to securing future product for the plant.
“It is possible an alternative product, which could include an existing platform or entirely new vehicle architecture, could occur during the term of the collective agreement,” a summary of the deal said.
At FCA’s Etobicoke casting facility, which employs about 400 hourly workers, the union secured $6.4 million in plant upgrades, although it failed to prevent the layoffs of up to 200 hourly workers as a result of the carmaker’s decision to cease production of the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 sedans.
The auotmaker hailed the voted in a statement released after the contract was declared ratified by the union.
“FCA Canada is pleased that Unifor members have voted to ratify a new four-year national labor agreement, covering 9,450 employees,” the maker said in the statement. “This agreement represents an investment in our Canadian workforce.
(Canadian auto workers authorize strike for talks with Detroit’s Big Three. Click Here for the details.)
“With the bargaining process now complete, the company and our employees look forward to continuing to build world class products and achieving the targets set out in our five-year business plan. Further details about our investment plans will be announced at the appropriate time.”