Autoblog

In a deal designed to assuage the tensions between General Motors and the Canadian Auto Workers union, GM's new car plant in Oshawa, Ontario will gain two additional models to build. The old truck plant in the same city, though, will still close sometime in 2009. Until then, the truck plant will continue to assemble hybrid versions of GM's full-size pickup trucks. The new Oshawa plant will begin building GM's long-anticipated Camaro revival and will also get some Chevrolet Impala production and an unnamed Buick model at some point in the future.

In addition to the extra work at the brand new Oshawa plant, displaced workers with at least 26 years of GM employment will get a percentage of their yearly salary, even after the plant has closed, until they have reached the necessary 30-year mark for retirement. Other qualifying ex-employees will get buyout packages of some sort. Thanks for the tip, Ryan!

[Source: CBC News]

Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, Canada's largest in the private sector, will step down earlier than anticipated. Hargrove wasn't expected to retire until he reached the CAW's mandatory age of 65 next year. It's tough to resist the allure of cuddling with Yorkies, Bingo every Monday night, and shuffleboard to fill in those long, wistful hours recalling the glory days of torquing valve covers in Windsor, so Hargrove has accelerated his departure to mid-September. No replacement candidate has been named yet, though an endorsee will be announced later today. Come this fall, keep an eye out on the golf courses of Florida for a relaxed looking guy drinking a Molson, eh?

[Source: Automotive News – Sub Req, Photo: media.canada.com]

Despite rising tensions (and a lawsuit) between General Motors and the Canadian Auto Workers union, the automaker may be interested in adding a new car line at its soon-to-closed truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario. Though that plant was originally scheduled to stay open a few more years, slumping sales of full-size trucks built there have forced GM to announce its early closure along with three other pickup and SUV plants. Since that announcement, union workers have barricaded GM Canada's headquarters for the last eight days in protest, which we'd imagine might make it difficult for GM management to negotiate with union officials... but what do we know?

According to The Detroit News, however, GM has been talking with Ontario's Economic Development and Trade Minister, Sandra Pupatello, who says that the government is very interested in securing the new vehicle line as quickly as possible. Even if a decision is made in short order, it is likely the plant's 2,600 workers would be out of work for up to two years after the closes and before its ready again with new tooling for a passenger car line.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Hold on to your britches folks. General Motors dealings with the Canadian Auto Workers union just took another turn for the worse. GM, like every other full-line automaker selling vehicles in the United States, has been unable to move as many pickup trucks as it had hoped since the price of gas has spiked. In response to the shifting tide of vehicle sales and to slow the huge financial hemorrhaging, GM announced about eight days ago that it would be closing four plants that build trucks and SUVs, including one in Oshawa, Ontario. Unfortunately, the General had recently promised to keep that particular plant open for a few more years, so the announcement more than irked the Union officials from up north.

Here's where things get real ugly. In retaliation, the CAW has blockaded the entrance to the GM headquarters in Canada for the last eight days. As you might imagine, GM has a slight problem with this and has taken the matter to court, where documents reveal that the automaker wants C$250,000 from the local union and five of its members for a total of $1.5 million in damages. We're not sure if this impending lawsuit will impact the Union's plans for a rally this Thursday in the parking lot of the Oshawa headquarters, but it's probably safe to say that this situation won't have a happy ending.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Shortly after reaching an agreement with Ford, the Canadian Auto Workers union announced the rather surprising news that it had reached tentative agreements with both General Motors and Chrysler. These deals come about four months before the deadline for a deal was to be hit and stand in stark contrast to the protracted negotiations that recently took place between the Big Three and the CAW's American counterpart, the UAW. Under the new deal, GM promises to keep its Oshawa, Ontario plant open until 2012 and offers buyouts worth up to $125,000 to workers at the Windsor transmission plant, which will soon be shut down. Chrysler, for its part, agreed to continue producing minivans at its Windsor assembly site, continue producing the 300C in Brampton, Ontario and keep its Toronto casting plant open until 2011.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove calls the tentative deals "a win-win" for both the union workers and the automakers. Union workers in Canada will get the chance to vote on the contracts later this month. A GM vote is planned for Friday, May 16. Chrysler's contract vote will follow on Saturday, May 17.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

When the second quarter of 2010 rolls along, 1,400 workers at General Motor's Windsor transmission factory will be out of work. The plant, which currently produces four-speed gearboxes for GM, will be phased out at the turn of the decade, with no plans to retool the facility to produce any other components. GM's Canada President, Arturo Elias, made it clear in the announcement that the decision was not a "reflection on our excellent Windsor workforce," but instead is due to a lack of available, "replacement products in the relevant timeframe for this location." Fortunately or unfortunately, today's announcement of the plant's closing takes place as the General negotiates a new contract with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union.

[Source: Detroit News]

We've been hearing for some time now that Buzz Hargrove and the CAW didn't want to have anything to do with the two-tier wage structure or health car plans that the UAW agreed to. Before the landmark labor contracts were ratified in the States, American auto manufacturers enjoyed the cheaper cost of building cars in Canada, and because that difference in manufacturing cost was no longer a factor, it appeared that the CAW and Detroit could be in for a long and messy fight. That may not be the case, though, as word comes from our unionized-friends up north that the CAW and Ford have already agreed in principle to the major points of their upcoming contract, a whopping five months ahead of schedule.

According to Automotive News, the union is expecting a deal to be done by the end of the week. We can surmise that the deal does not include a multi-tiered wage structure, though. "We were not going to do a tier-two and if Ford had insisted it would have resulted in a fight," says Hargrove. The CAW did, however, agree to give up 40 hours of vacation time per year, a supplemental health care fund and a reduced entry-wage for new-hires. Ford will compensate CAW workers with a single payment of $3,500 for the lost vacation time and a $2,200 bonus if the contract is ratified at the plant-level. Ford also promises to keep the St. Thomas plant open until at least 2011 as opposed to the current plan of 2010. See the press release after the break for all the juicy details.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req., CAW]

Buzz Hargrove isn't mincing words about his opinion of Chrysler LLC's strategy. Calling the decision to send the Magnum and Pacifica models out to pasture and cut shifts and jobs at the Brampton, Ontario plant "stupid," Hargrove has said the Canadian Auto Workers aren't interested in the type of concessions the UAW recently agreed to. While the UAW is allowing new hires to be given a lower pay level, as well as taking on a health care trust fund, the CAW will be having none of that, according to Hargrove.

Cuts were expected, but Chrysler's recent scaling back is more than necessary, according to Hargrove, who counters that what the company's really trying to do is reduce supply in order to drive up demand and keep prices higher. It sounds like a good way to make the automaker profitable, thinning the lineup and trimming overproduction. The problem, according to The Buzz, is that Chrysler's plan is anathema to the long union tradition of providing jobs that pay well enough to allow a solid middle class life for autoworkers. With the pay cuts, Hargrove says that autoworkers will no longer be able to afford to buy the cars they build. The recent fall of the dollar isn't helping matters, and will likely give Chrysler another point to argue when asking for concessions. The Canadian Auto Workers will begin duking it out with Detroit in July, so expect the rhetoric to become even more heated in the months to come.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

At 1:30PM today, Canadian Auto Workers (the Canadian counterpart to the UAW) president Buzz Hargrove gave a press conference responding to the UAW strike today against General Motors. In Hargrove's mind, a worst case scenario could see anywhere between 80,000 and 100,000 Canadian workers unemployed as a result of the strike. Hargrove seemed to blame General Motors for shifting the hardships caused by what he called "unfair imports" onto its workers, and he surmised the automaker will use the same strategy when it begins talks with the CAW to renegotiate its contracts next year.
As for the near term effect of the strike, Hargrove said the impact on Canadian plants will be immediate. GM Canada's No. 1 plant in Oshawa will stop making the Chevy Impala at 3AM EST Tuesday. The No. 2 Oshawa plant will stop making the Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Allure (LaCrosse) at the end of the business day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the highly profitable Oshawa truck plant that makes the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra has enough inventory to last about three days. Unfortunately, the GM Transmission plant in Windsor has already shut down, and another powertrain component plant in St. Catherine's, Ontario will stop altogether shortly, as well.

As for whether or not the strike is a "token strike" or will have the legs to last a significant amount of time, Hargrove said, "I think this thing's going to drag on for a while."

[Source: Canadian Press]

Things are not looking good for American automakers' plants in Windsor, Ontario. Canadian Auto Workers Union head Buzz Hargrove was upset when Ford shut down a plant in Windsor a while back, and now he's directing his frustration towards General Motors. Recently, St. Catherines, also in Canada and represented by the CAW, was awarded a new contract to build transmissions for GM. St. Catherines had never had a contract to build transmissions for GM before, and the CAW was expecting the Windsor plant to get that contract. The Windsor plant now has no product to build and nothing in the pipeline, and Hargrove is threatening more than just a strike: a total take-down of General Motors. The union would like to see a new product there, not something that will take another plant down in lieu of Windsor. Read more about that here. We'll give you a few choice phrases from Hargrove and Chris Buckley, president of Local 222, after the jump. They sound pretty serious about this, as you'll read.

[Source: The Windsor Star via Autospies]