Ford, Unifor reach tentative agreement, averting strike in Canada
Unifor, the autoworkers' union in Canada, and Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday night they had struck a tentative agreement, averting a strike for the Dearborn automaker in a second North American country.
Details on the deal won't be presented until after they are shared with Unifor members at ratification meetings being held "in the near future," according to a news release. The parties early Tuesday morning had agreed to extend the talks 24 hours after the original deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday, with Unifor instructing its members to remain at work unless they received alternate instructions from the union.
“We believe that this tentative agreement, endorsed by the entire master bargaining committee, addresses all of the items raised by members in preparation for this round of collective bargaining,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement. “We believe that this agreement will solidify the foundations on which we will continue to bargain gains for generations of autoworkers in Canada.”
Ford of Canada said in a statement sent by spokesperson Said Deep: "Ford of Canada and Unifor have reached a tentative agreement on a three-year national labour contract covering more than 5,000 unionized employees in Canada."
"The agreement is subject to ratification by Ford-Unifor members," the statement said. "To respect the ratification process, Ford of Canada will not discuss the specifics of the tentative agreement."
Ford on Monday had presented a "substantive" offer "minutes before the deadline," according to a Unifor statement sent by spokesperson Kathleen O'Keefe at the time, which also noted "members should continue to maintain strike readiness."
Payne had said on Monday if the union did strike, all of its 5,600 members at Ford would have been on the picket line at Oakville Assembly Plant, two engine plants in Windsor, parts and distribution centers, offices and technical units. Downtime at those plants could have had implications for production at plants in the United States.
“In addition to reaching a master agreement, our members at each Ford location face their own unique set of issues that needed to be resolved by our committees at the bargaining table,” Unifor Ford Master Bargaining Chair John D’Agnolo said in a statement. “This agreement makes the kind of gains our members need today and adds greater financial security for the future.”
Obtaining an agreement without a strike action juxtaposes with the United Auto Workers' negotiations strategy. Unifor's approach was more traditional, selecting a lead company to start the pattern with the threat of a national strike if discussions stalled. Meanwhile, the UAW opted to continue talks with all three of the Detroit automakers and on Friday began executing its "stand-up strike" strategy. It has sent one plant on strike from each of the companies with the risk the union could add more as soon as noon on Friday if "substantial progress" isn't made by then.
"It looks like Ford was very motivated to secure a deal and Unifor proved a willing dance partner," said Larry Savage, a labor studies professor at Brock University in Ontario. "While we don't know the details of the tentative agreement, we should expect Canadian autoworkers to have made significant gains in this round of bargaining."
The question remains if those gains, whatever they are, will be enough to have the agreement ratified by members since the UAW's "militant posture" has raised autoworker expectations, Savage said. "You can bet that the content of that deal is going to be judged relative to what UAW members are expected to secure south of the border."
The breakthrough in Canada may serve as a sort of morale booster at Ford and an incentive to get a deal done with the UAW, said Marick Masters, a management professor at Wayne State University.
“The more clarity you can bring to the situation, the better at this point in time,” he said. “A strike would have only complicated the situation in the U.S., having adverse implications for Ford and perhaps necessitating the layoff of additional workers, and at the same time, it removes that as a source of Ford’s attention. They can now focus exclusively on negotiations in the U.S.”
An agreement between Unifor and Ford without a strike doesn't necessarily mean the Canadian union had the superior strategy, Masters said, but the approaches do reflect the different circumstances in which the unions find themselves.
"The UAW is operating in uncharted waters," he said. "The test of the wisdom of this strategy will be time. It's a risky strategy, and you're in a high-risk game. The downside is great. The upside is great. (UAW President) Shawn Fain's leadership is obviously on the line. Everything revolves around whether he gets a successful contract. If he doesn’t, he will probably have just one term in office."
Fain was the first UAW president to be elected directly by the rank-and-file. Unifor's leadership is voted upon through locally elected delegates.
"The union (Unifor) isn’t encumbered with the internal challenges the UAW has had," Masters said. The UAW "has brand new leadership at a pivotal time, which is more militant. They’re asking for a whole lot. I think they have to know that some of these issues are nonstarters. If they’re insistent on all of that along with the wage increase, in-progression and tiers, they're a long way off from an agreement."
Brock University's Savage said the unions have "overlapping priorities," but there are some key differences and Unifor's leadership could see that "gap is significant enough to make a different set of strategic choices." For example, Unifor selected Ford as its focus initially, unlike the UAW, he said. Unifor also hasn’t publicly released what it wants to see from the automakers in terms of wages and other economic gains.
"They have made some very different strategic choices,” Savage said. “It sounds like they've been in contact with one another, but there doesn't seem to be any high level of coordination.”
There also are issues that affect Unifor's negotiations to a lesser extent, Masters said. For example, the UAW wants to see all of its Detroit Three members receive retirement health care coverage. Canada, meanwhile, has a publicly funded health care system.
Additionally, the automakers have announced billions of dollars in commitments to build electric vehicles at its Canadian assembly plants. Stellantis NV is building a battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Windsor as well. In the United States, though, sites like the idled Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere, Illinois, and Trenton Engine Complex could be at risk without product promises.
The Canadian government has played a more direct role securing an electric-vehicle future for Unifor members, Masters said. Although the White House says it's sending top aids to Detroit to help broker an agreement, the U.S. federal government is more disconnected from granting subsidies and incentives to specific manufacturers.
Still, both Unifor and the UAW are seeking increased wages and improved pensions following high rates of inflation, job security and support to transition workers from building internal combustion engine vehicles and their parts to EVs.
"The contract," Masters said about Unifor's agreement, "could offer insights into with what Ford might be forthcoming in the U.S."
To the UAW, the Blue Oval has offered at least 20% wage increases over four and a half years, a four-year progression to the top wage, a $20 per hour starting wage for temporary employees and the return of a cost-of-living allowance.
Unifor's tentative agreement came as the United Auto Workers' strike against all three Detroit automakers in the United States headed toward its sixth day.
Unifor in August announced that it had selected Ford to serve as the lead company with which it would bargain to model contracts with the other automakers. Unifor represents around 18,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors Co. and Stellantis.
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Staff Writer Jordyn Grzelewski contributed.