Unifor's Jerry Dias hammered out the basically deal with Ford as he did with FCA and GM.
The final deal is done between the Detroit Three automakers and hourly union workers in Canada as Unifor, the union that represents 23,000 auto workers, announced those employees of Ford of Canada Ltd. narrowly ratified a new four-year labor agreement.
The Ford contract includes a $630 million commitment to renovate the Essex Engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, bringing $1.6 billion worth of new investments that Unifor negotiated during the latest round of talks with Detroit’s automakers.
Besides the Essex renovation, Unifor also received assurances from Ford that the Windsor assembly plant will stay open during the length of the four-year term of the new contract even without significant new investment.
Unifor, in negotiations that began during the summer, also won a commitment from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. to renovated a paint shop at FCA’s assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, and a promise to rehabilitate the aging assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario.
Jerry Dias, Unifor president, says the investments will help guarantee the future of the auto industry in Canada.
The union’s key demand in the talks was investment that would keep plants that were on the endangered list from closing during the next four years.
(Ford averts strike with new Canadian pact. Click Here for the story.)
Ford employee at plants in Oakville, Windsor, and a parts depot in Brampton, narrowly ratified the four-year agreement, with 58% voting for the contract. The union leadership had to overcome oppositions among union members who wanted to see length of time workers have to wait to collect top wages reduced from 10 to eight years.
Concerns that Ford's Oakville, Ontario, plant employees wouldn't ratify the new deal never materialized.
Workers will receive $12,000 in bonuses and lump-sum payments during the four years, while wages will rise 2% in the first year of the deal and 2% in the fourth year.
But the key to the Ford deal for union leaders was new investment at engine facilities in Windsor, where the company has about 1,400 employees who work at two engine plants.
(Canadian union sets strike deadline in negotiations with Ford. Click Here for the details.)
Ford agreed to spend $613 million in Windsor to prepare its Essex engine plant for a new 7.0-liter engine. It also agreed to continue until 2020 to produce, at its Windsor engine plant, a 6.8-liter engine that was scheduled to go out of production.
Unifor won promises of $1.6 billion in new investment from Ford, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and General Motors Co. in negotiations that began during the summer.
Newly hired employees in Oakville, members of local 707, sought a change in the pay grid so that they progressed to the same hourly wage level as traditional workers in eight years instead of 10 years.
(Click Here for more about Unifor’s ratification of the deal with FCA.)
The starting hourly rate for newly hired employees will rise to $20.92 in the new contract from $20.39 in 2012.