Tuesday strike deadline looms as automaker rejects pension provisions of pattern agreement.
By Brett Clanton / The Detroit News
General Motors Corp. continues to resist contract terms with the Canadian Auto Workers union that Ford and Chrysler accepted earlier this month, raising the specter of a walkout as a Tuesday night strike deadline approaches.
Amid deep financial losses in North America this year, GM is pushing to reduce labor costs and cut jobs while threatening to withhold new investment in Canada if the union doesn't agree to its terms, CAW President Basil "Buzz" Hargrove said Saturday.
"All of these things make it very difficult to be optimistic today that we can conclude this, our last round of bargaining for 2005 with GM, without a shutdown," he said. "Having said that, there's a lot of hard work being done trying to find solutions."
GM is the last of Detroit's Big Three automakers to negotiate a new three-year labor contract with the CAW, which represents about 42,000 auto workers in Canada -- roughly 17,000 of them at GM.
Source:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...B01-326019.htm