Unifor sets Oct. 9 deadline for contract talks with General Motors

Unifor has started the clock on negotiations with General Motors Canada, two days after returning to the bargaining table with the automaker.

Discussions between the two sides will run to a negotiating deadline of 11:59 p.m. Oct. 9, Unifor President Lana Payne and other members of the GM master bargaining committee told members late Thursday.

Talks with GM restarted Tuesday after a monthlong hiatus as the union hammered out a new collective agreement with Ford Motor Co. of Canada. The deal with Ford, which Unifor members narrowly ratified Sunday, will form the basis of the union’s patterned bargaining strategy.

“Your bargaining committees are now focused on locking in the pattern agreement at General Motors. All of the significant increases to pensions, wages, health benefits, and more must now be bargained with the company,” the Unifor bargaining committee wrote to members.

Unifor’s contracts with the Detroit 3 initially expired Sept. 18, but the union took the customary step of extending the deals with GM and Stellantis as it focused on Ford. The new deadline for GM will up the ante on talks, putting workers in a strike position Oct. 10 if a deal isn’t reached.

GM Canada spokesperson Monte Doran said the two sides have agreed to work toward the new deadline.   

“We look forward to working with our Unifor partners to build a competitive future that also recognizes our employees’ contributions to our shared success,” he said in an email.

Unifor represents roughly 4,300 workers at GM facilities in Oshawa, St. Catharines and Woodstock, Ontario, whose contracts are set to expire. Another 1,500 union members at the company’s CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, fall under a separate collective agreement.