The walkout, from factories in Ontario that produce pickup trucks and engines, makes GM the first of Detroit’s Big Three automakers to face strikes on both sides of the border. Ford managed to avert a Canadian strike last month after reaching a deal with Unifor. In the United States, the United Auto Workers has been striking against Ford, GM and Jeep-maker Stellantis since Sept. 15.
In a statement early Tuesday, Unifor National President Lana Payne said GM “continues to fall short on our pension demands, income supports for retired workers, and meaningful steps to transition temporary workers into permanent, full-time jobs.”
GM said early Tuesday that it remains at the bargaining table to reach a deal “that is fair and flexible for our 4,200 represented employees.” About 9,200 of GM’s workers are striking in the United States.
The strikes are part of a broader labor movement of workers pushing for big pay increases and other perks after years of wages lagging inflation. In the United States, the striking autoworkers have been pushing for a wage increase of 36 percent over a new four-year contract. The Big Three are offering 20 to 23 percent.
Ford won over Canadian workers last month with a contract that provides hourly wage increases of almost 20 percent for production employees and 25 percent for tradespeople, alongside a host of changes to retirement and health-care coverage.
Unifor said GM must match those terms.
“This dispute can only end one way: with GM agreeing to the same terms in our pattern agreement with Ford,” Unifor negotiator Jason Gale said in a statement.
The costs to GM are rising as the strikes hit the company’s profitable pickup truck production in southern Ontario. The Unifor strike includes Oshawa Assembly Complex and CCA Stamped Products, St. Catharines Powertrain Plant and Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre, which produce Chevrolet Silverado trucks as well as some V-6 and V-8 engines.
In the United States, the UAW has limited its work stoppage to only certain Big Three plants and is threatening to broaden the action over time if it doesn’t make progress at the bargaining table. About 17 percent of the UAW’s members at the Big Three are on strike.
The union, which pays striking workers $500 a week, is hoping to make its strike fund last longer by targeting the work stoppage for now. But the union’s costs broadened again this week when its members beyond the Big Three decided to walk off the job, too.
On Monday, roughly 4,000 UAW members at Mack Trucks factories in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida began striking after rejecting a tentative contract agreement that the union negotiated with the company. The deal would have raised wages nearly 20 percent — starting with a 10 percent bump the first year — as well as frozen health insurance premiums over the life of the contract.
That walkout underscores workers’ high expectations. UAW President Shawn Fain called the tentative agreement with Mack a “record contract” when he presented it to members last week, but they rejected it by a vote of 73 percent.
After that vote, Fain said “clearly we are not there yet.” He cited several areas up for discussion, including provisions related to pay, work schedules, benefits, and health and safety.
Mack Trucks is best known for its semi trucks, though it also produces construction equipment and firetrucks, and has a defense division that makes military-grade construction vehicles. It is a unit of the Swedish manufacturer Volvo.
