General Motors Workers Ratify New Tentative Agreement In Three Locations

[gm world]

General Motors Workers Ratify New Tentative Agreement In Three Locations

CAW members working at three General Motors locations across Ontario have ratified a new collective agreement over the course of a series of meetings on Friday, May 16.

The union reached early agreements with both General Motors and Chrysler Thursday morning, more than four months before the contract expiration. The agreement closely follows a pattern established at Ford two weeks earlier and includes product commitments by General Motors to both the Oshawa Car and Truck plant and the St. Catharines’ facilities.

The results by location are as follows:

CAW Local 1973, Windsor
Production: 98% in favour
Skilled Trades: 94 % in favour
Combined total: 97% in favour

CAW Local 199, St. Catharines
Production: 86% in favour
Skilled Trades: 89% in favour
Combined total: 86% in favour

CAW Local 222, Oshawa
Production: 84% in favour
Skilled Trades: 69% in favour
Combined total: 80% in favour

The final result will be released tomorrow following a ratification meeting at Local 636 at GM’s warehouse in Woodstock.

Pictured at left: CAW Local 222 President Chris Buckley addressing the membership at a ratification meeting on Friday.

[K Dawg ONE]

Buzz Bucks up to $2600 and $35000 vehicle vouchers = good times are a comming to me!

[BlackSilverado]

My ears have never heard such sweeter thing coming from Chris Buckley

[YupYupYup]

They had to take it or their jobs were eventually going to Mexico. Buzz put on a good face for his last hoorah, but he did not get anything new for the union. They survived...

[Clownzilla]

Originally Posted by YupYupYup

They had to take it or their jobs were eventually going to Mexico. Buzz put on a good face for his last hoorah, but he did not get anything new for the union. They survived...

They survived for now but the UAW-CAW are dead men walking. It is inevitable that GM is going to outsource their work outside the country. GM needs to and GM will do just that. It might be years down the road but it is a GM power play in the making.......

[YupYupYup]

Originally Posted by Clownzilla

They survived for now but the UAW-CAW are dead men walking. It is inevitable that GM is going to outsource their work outside the country. GM needs to and GM will do just that. It might be years down the road but it is a GM power play in the making.......

Exactly. There is a reason Buzz is retiring now. He knows they are in deep trouble. While he might have tried to spin the agreement to his members and in the media, he got nothing more or new in the agreement. He basically bought some time for the union. In a couple of media talks with him, he admitted that he was happy he could just get something. He is a man on the way, just like his organization...

[hotrod1949]

Woodstock has also ratified. I think they got what they expected, next to nothing. Everybody and his brother understands the state of the industry in Ontario.

[Tony_the_Tiger]

SAAB car sticker

YO, Clownzilla; That Saab might have been built by members of the "TAW"... { Troll Auto Workers**
What's your issue with union made products? Do you want cars and trucks made by slave labor? - Soon we are going to have all kinds of SHlTBOXES from China and other Third World places, built with costs not safety as their top priority! You better hope you're not coming the other way when one of these throw-aways disintegrates on the highway.......

[lilredcrvtt]

Originally Posted by Tony_the_Tiger

SAAB car sticker

YO, Clownzilla; That Saab might have been built by members of the "TAW"... { Troll Auto Workers**
What's your issue with union made products? Do you want cars and trucks made by slave labor? - Soon we are going to have all kinds of SHlTBOXES from China and other Third World places, built with costs not safety as their top priority! You better hope you're not coming the other way when one of these throw-aways disintegrates on the highway.......

I couldn't have said it better!! It is obvious to a few who comment on this site, that out sourcing pretty much everything to the lowest bidder is going to bite everyone in the end. If anyone thinks that the economy will bounce back if everyone just was paid less and less, they are very mistaken.

Consider that the standards of living, health and safety, medical care and environmental responsibility in North America are vastly higher than China or other third world countries. Those who want to bash the products built by North Americans should give living like the chinese or others in the third world a try.

[gypsygirl5]

Originally Posted by YupYupYup

Exactly. There is a reason Buzz is retiring now. He knows they are in deep trouble. While he might have tried to spin the agreement to his members and in the media, he got nothing more or new in the agreement. He basically bought some time for the union. In a couple of media talks with him, he admitted that he was happy he could just get something. He is a man on the way, just like his organization...

We were not expecting any gains with this contract. In fact, it could have been much worse or we could have been forced into a possibly suicidal strike. The vast majority of GM employees are able to retire within 6 yrs (I have 4 and a half to go myself). Most of us just want to be able to hang on until then. I expect to have to start a new career after leaving GM, but I will only be 52 and too young to sit home anyway.

Then again, a lot depends on the economy. A new govt in the U.S. might breathe some life into the U.S. dollar. If our Canuck-buck drops in value, we could end up being an attractive place to invest again. We do give GM both their highest quality and productivity.

[BuyDomestic]

The ONLY reason Buzz is calling it quits is because he has to. The CAW Constitution states the MANDATORY retirement age is 65, which Buzz has reached. He cannot modify this clause, so off he goes into the sunset.
By the way, General Motors' Canadian operations have always been, and continue to be (yes, even today) PROFITABLE. It's all lumped under "North American" operations, but internally the numbers are well known. GM expects labour costs to be a wash between CAW and UAW plants even when UAW retiree health care is off the books in a couple of years...but ONLY when you factor in the Canadian advantage in productivity and quality. Canadian plants have a much better "vehicles built per hour" ratio and a much better "worker per vehicle built ratio". CAW new hires will come in at a lower wage this contract and we suspect it's only a matter of time before the CAW has to capitulate and bring in new hires at a rate comparable to the UAW...depending on the exchange rate of course.

[gypsygirl5]

Actually, if you look at the local agreement for Oshawa, it would seem that GM can bring in SWEs (contract workers) at will now, provided no one is indefinitely laid off and preferential hires from other locations are exhausted. So, in essence, two-tier is already here. Why take on any new hires?

[BlackSilverado]

Because the SWE's need a fulltime job and most of them are excellent workers. And they are also on the pref hire list providing no one is out on layoff. They used to be able to come in for a 8 month stretch, not they can come in for a unlimited amount of time.

I liek the SWE's, well most of them. i got my buddy in as one who needed a better paying job. He has a perfect work record and is very well liked by the workers in the plant. He was there for over a year and a half and he was laid off with everyone else on Dec 1st of last year. I hope he gets back in soon.

[gypsygirl5]

Hey, nothing against them. I worked with a couple last year that I liked very much. They do represent a second tier, however, as far as I am concerned, and that was my point. GM doesn't really need the two-tier system as the UAW brought in as long as they can avoid hiring fulltime by using SWEs.

[b4z]

I completely understand UAWs member' cries for a living wage and how that will affect their standard of living and ability to purchase a nice home in a good area, college for their kids, etc. etc. It's what every American wants.
But when they bought that Sony Tv instead of a Zenith, or Panasonic clock radio instead of a GE, or a LG dishwasher instead of an Amana I lose a little sympathy for them.
Sorry, but that is reality.
Millions of factory workers have already lost their jobs do to offshore competition and now the autoworkers are getting hit(and have been since the '90s) and they want us to think they are any different than the guy or gal at a Maytag plant.
I don't get why it is their birthright to paid more than any other factory worker in America?