Automotive News Canada - October 2023 - 8

8
* OCTOBER 2023
Stellantis members threaten bargaining
'There's no question
they're organizing to push
to break the pattern,' says
a labour expert, and UAW
leader Shawn Fain
is a significant factor
By GREG LAYSON
DIGITAL AND MOBILE EDITOR
UNIFOR, THE UNION THAT
represents 23,500 auto workers in Canada,
is staring down a potential revolt by its
members when it comes to the longstanding
tradition of pattern bargaining with
the Detroit Three automakers, warns one
labour expert.
" For years, the union had to contend
with the Detroit Three wanting
to break the pattern, now it looks like
the greatest threat to the pattern is
from within the union, " Larry Savage,
a labour studies professor at Brock
University in St. Catharines, Ont.,
told Automotive News Canada.
Unifor members working at a Stellantis
assembly plant in Windsor, Ont., could
ultimately try to break the pattern set by
a contract with Ford Motor Co. of Canada.
The agreement, ratified Sept. 24 by 54 per
cent of Ford hourly workers, will net longtime
employees nearly 20-per-cent wage
gains over three years, including cost-ofliving
allowance fold-ins. As well, members
on defined contribution pension
plans will switch over to superior defined
benefit plans in 2025.
Unifor Local 444 President Dave
Cassidy, who represents about 4,800 hourly
Stellantis workers at the Windsor
Assembly Plant, said he " didn't hear anybody
supporting the deal " during a local
meeting Oct. 1 that drew 600 members.
" My membership will not accept what
was delivered. And I heard my membership
loud and clear, " Cassidy said. " I'm
just being honest and laying the groundwork. "
Savage
said workers view these contract
talks as " a golden opportunity to
catch up after years of concession bargaining. "
" Coming
out of the pandemic, workers
are more generally fed up and in a mood
to fight back, " he said.
Savage said workers haven't wielded
this much bargaining power since the
turn of the century.
THE 'NEED TO BE CLEAR'
Unifor Local 444 President Dave
Cassidy, who represents about
4,800 hourly Stellantis workers at
the Windsor Assembly Plant, said
members at an Oct. 1 meeting were not
outwardly supportive of the deal Unifor
made with Ford in September.
SUPPLIED PHOTOS
wage demand to 36 per cent, although
the union has been staging strikes across
select Detroit Three plants in the United
States.
Cassidy warned that " the membership
ultimately has the final say. "
" I work for my membership. "
Savage said there's definitely a movement
afoot.
" I don't think you saw [Cassidy] mobilizing
people to vote against the Ford deal.
But there's no question they're organizing
to push to break the pattern, " he said.
UNIFOR MEMBERS WATCHING UAW
Cassidy and Savage attribute much
of the anger on Canadian shop floors to
UAW President Shawn Fain. The fiery
labour leader began contract talks in the
United States asking for a 46-per-cent
wage increase, a four-day work week
and more. Fain has since lowered the
Cassidy said his members in Windsor,
a border town connected to Detroit by a
tunnel and bridge, " are paying attention
to Fain " and expecting similar demands
be made by Unifor of the Detroit Three in
Canada.
That, even though Cassidy called the
Ford deal one of the best on record.
" I know that in my 30 years at
Chrysler, the pattern that's in place
today is one of the highest bars that has
ever been set. However, I also know that
we haven't had the big wage increases
because of the situations we've been in
for the past 15 years. "
He said the Great Recession of 2008
and 2009, and COVID-19 have left the
industry " in disarray for that long. "
Cassidy is one of 60 Unifor members
who will bargain with Stellantis, alongside
Unifor President Lana Payne.
" I need to be clear with her, " Cassidy
said. " I believe we still have a lot of work
to do, even after General Motors has completed
their round of bargaining. "
Payne wasn't immediately available
for comment, but on Oct. 4 she posted
a pointed three-minute video message
on YouTube, titled " Why Pattern
Bargaining Works. " It could be viewed as
targeting Cassidy or GM, which Unifor
said on Oct. 6 was putting up " some resistance "
to the pattern.
A tentative agreement with GM was
reached on Oct. 9.
Resistance to the pattern is nothing
new. The Canadian Auto Workers in
1996 threatened to break pattern, leading
the union to occupy the GM fabrication
plant in Oshawa, Ont., until the company
agreed.
The late Sergio Marchionne, while
head of Chrysler and then Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles, made it abundantly clear he
hated pattern bargaining, alleging smaller
automakers couldn't afford the bigger
wage increases set early in negotiations.
Payne called the process " essential "
and " one of the most powerful acts of solidarity
we have. "
In the video, Payne said that without a
pattern deal, automakers would sow division,
lower wages, lower work standards
and pit workers against each other.
" We have to fight for this pattern
agreement for the thousands of members
whose lives will be changed for the better, "
Payne said. - ANC
Cassidy: NextStar facility must be part of negotiations
Stellantis 'has to
understand there will
be [union] members
at the battery plant'
By GREG LAYSON
DIGITAL AND MOBILE EDITOR
UNIFOR LOCAL 444 PRESIDENT
Dave Cassidy, who represents about 4,800
hourly workers at a Stellantis assembly
plant in Windsor, Ont., said he will press
the automaker in upcoming negotiations
to include its new electric-vehicle battery
plant in the collective agreement.
Unifor will begin bargaining with
Stellantis after it reaches a deal with
General Motors. A tentative deal was
reached, but it had not been ratified by
press time. The union already ratified a
new three-year pact with Ford Canada in
September.
" We've already notified the company
it will be part of these discussions
when we're up to bat, " Cassidy
told Automotive News Canada.
He will be one of 60 Unifor executives
on the Stellantis bargaining committee
when talks begin.
Stellantis and LG Energy Solution
four U.S. battery-making locations it's
planning - currently receive lower pay
than assembly workers.
UAW President Shawn Fain, in his
weekly broadcast Oct. 6 on Facebook, said
GM had agreed to put the battery plants
under its national contract, which would
" change the future of our union and the
future of our industry. "
The $5-billion NextStar Energy plant in Windsor, Ont., is expected to employ 2,500
people when it begins full-scale production in 2025. Unifor Local 444 President
Dave Cassidy wants the plant to be unionized. FILE PHOTO
formed a joint EV battery venture called
NextStar Energy and are building a
$5-billion EV battery factory about 10
kilometres east of the automaker's minivan
plant in Windsor.
" We're going to pressure Stellantis to
make sure they go to the joint venture
and make sure they understand there is
going to be Local 444 members at the battery
plant, " Cassidy said.
The companies announced the battery
facility in March 2022 and construction is
ongoing.
Production of EV battery modules is
scheduled to start in the second quarter
of 2024. NextStar plans to have 2,500
employees in place to allow for the fullscale
production of EV battery modules,
electrodes and cells beginning in early
2025.
WAGE GAPS FOR EV PLANT WORKERS
That means output would start during
the span of the next collectively bargained
agreement between Unifor and Stellantis.
Cassidy said gaps in wages exist
between those who work in auto assembly
and battery production.
For example, workers at GM's Ultium
Cells battery plant in Ohio - the first of
It was unclear how GM would do this, as
most battery plants are operated through
joint ventures with other companies and
cannot legally be part of Detroit Three
negotiations. The UAW and GM did not
immediately respond to a request for comment
from Automotive News Canada.
Cassidy said his goal is to ensure the
same happens in Canada.
He said Unifor has requested a tour of
a NextStar plant in Poland to get a feel for
the work and " see what it's all about. "
Cassidy wants the battery plant aligned
so closely to the assembly plant that
employees could apply for job postings at
either factory and " transfer back and forth
accordingly. "
" That's my vision, anyway, " he said.
Stellantis declined to comment on
Cassidy's statement. - ANC
Michael Martinez of sibling publication
Automotive News contributed to this
report.
Automotive News Canada - October 2023

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