Automotive News Canada - October 2023 - 52

52
* OCTOBER 2023
Northvolt Six: 3,000 jobs and a $2.7B carrot from Quebec, Ottawa
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
as we're establishing this facility in Montreal, " he said.
Northvolt co-founder Paolo Cerruti said the company's
" anchor customer " for the plant is likely to be disclosed in
the coming weeks.
Northvolt, founded in Stockholm in 2016, said it expects
to hire about 3,000 people to staff the
plant.
Champagne:
Northvolt's
decision
to build a
battery-cell
plant near
Montreal " is
a strong vote
of confidence
in the EV
ecosystem
we are
currently
building in
Quebec and
all around
Canada. "
FILE PHOTO
The Northvolt campus, which will
cover 420 acres (170 hectares), will include
a cell production plant and precursor
steps such as cathode-active-material production
and battery recycling at adjacent
facilities. In its first phase, the operation
will have capacity to produce 30
gigawatt-hours of battery cells each year,
while an expected expansion will double
output - enough for about one million
electric vehicles.
BILLIONS FROM GOVERNMENT
The federal and Quebec governments
said the $7 billion investment marks a
new high-water mark for private projects
in the province. It also caps a string of
battery supply-chain spending in Quebec
over the past 18 months, adding cell production
to a long list of mining and material
processing sites planned, under construction
or in production across the
province.
Both the federal and Quebec governments
pledged considerable upfront and
longer-term tax incentives to secure the
project. Ottawa committed $1.34 billion toward capital
expenditures, while Quebec will spend $1.37 billion, nearly
40 per cent of the total capital cost.
Construction on the new plant, called Northvolt Six, is expected to start next year. It's scheduled to
produce its first battery cells in 2026. The site is east of Montreal on 420 acres (170 hectares).
SUPPLIED ILLUSTRATION
The announcement of the plant is the " culmination
of our desire to attract the world's biggest players, "
said François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's minister
of innovation, science and industry.
" Northvolt's decision to pick Quebec to establish
their project, amongst more than 70 sites, is a strong
vote of confidence in the EV ecosystem we are currently
building in Quebec and all around Canada, " he
said in a release.
" It also speaks volumes of our country's competitiveness
when it comes to attracting major investments. "
As
with other battery-cell plants planned in
Ontario, the federal and provincial governments will
match cell production tax incentives worth US $35
per kilowatt-hour (about Cdn $46), as offered under
the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. Ottawa estimates the
subsidies will cost $4.6 billion through 2032, with onethird
of the cost carried by the province.
Construction on the new plant, officially dubbed
Northvolt Six, is expected to start next year, with
early site preparation beginning this fall. The plant is
scheduled to produce its first battery cells in 2026, ramping up
to full production by 2028.
'QUEBEC IS A POWERHOUSE'
Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts
Manufacturers' Association (APMA), praised the announcement
on the social media site X, formerly called Twitter.
" Quebec is a powerhouse that will drive prosperity in
automotive in a way that will transform the landscape forever, "
Volpe said. " This is in so many ways the manifestation
of everything we tried to accomplish in the NAFTA
renegotiations in 2017-19. "
Cerruti, who was COO of Northvolt and will head the
new project as CEO of Northvolt North America, pointed
to Quebec's clean-power grid, natural resources and labour
force as the three key reasons the company will locate the
plant outside Montreal.
Tax incentives that put Canada on a level playing field
with those offered in the United States were also integral.
" It is extremely important, " Cerruti said. " If there was no
money, there would be no cell makers in this country. "
-ANC
Some Unifor members want strikes, but is it working for the UAW?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Manufacturing. But it's not necessarily
reflective of the " whale of a deal " hammered
out by the Unifor bargaining committee,
he said.
NEWS
ANALYSIS
" You look at that deal objectively, and
you go: 'Whoa.' They've made
material progress on everything
they wanted to make
material progress on. "
Stephanie Ross, an associate
professor of labour studies at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ont., and Jim
Stanford, director of the Centre for Future
Work and a former economist at Unifor,
agree that the collective agreement ratified
by members Sept. 24 locks in big gains on
multiple fronts.
" If we were three or five years ago, this
package would be widely celebrated as a
huge step forward, " Ross said, citing the
wage gains and the halving of the grow-in
timeline for new workers as particularly
significant.
To the set of big wins for the union,
Stanford added the reinstatement of quarterly
cost-of-living allowances and the path
back to defined-benefit-style pensions for
new workers.
" There is no doubt that this is a tremendously
rich deal, but how that translates
into ratification votes depends on all kinds
of things, " Stanford said. " I never second-guess
the members. "
WATCHING UAW DEALS
In assessing the Ford deal, however,
Unifor members were nearly certainly
looking south.
Ross, Stanford and Sweeney each pointed
to the overshadowing influence of ongoing
UAW strikes in the United States
against the Detroit Three as setting worker
Ross: " If we
were three
or five years
ago, this
package
would be
widely
celebrated as
a huge step
forward. "
FILE PHOTO
partial strike.
The Unifor deal, by contrast, will net
longtime workers nearly 20-per-cent wage
gains over three years, including cost-of-living
allowance fold-ins .
With no guarantee the UAW will achieve
its aims and the contracts having different
timelines, comparison is difficult, Stanford
said. But stark differences also exist
between how Unifor and the UAW have
bargained over the past 40 years.
" The Canadian and American auto
unions took different paths beginning in
1985, " he said, pointing to the year that
Unifor's precursor, the Canadian Auto
Workers split from the UAW.
UAW President Shawn Fain speaks on a Facebook broadcast of progress at the
bargaining table on Oct. 6. " There's no question " that the UAW is influencing
the attitude of Unifor members in Canada, said Stephanie Ross, an associate
professor of labour studies at McMaster University. PHOTO: FACEBOOK
Among other differences, Stanford said
the UAW's longtime focus on profit-sharing
over steady wage increases has left
autoworkers on the northern side of the
border with better regular compensation
heading into this round of talks.
" The assumption that [the UAW] is
demanding more is quite wrong, " he said.
" I think you could argue they're trying to
catch up. "
The expectations of Unifor members
should also consider the concessions
the CAW and UAW made in 2009 as the
expectations off-kilter.
" There's no question
that what's happening
there is shaping the way
that members are assessing
this deal, " Ross said.
That's the case whether
it's a fair comparison
or not, she said.
The UAW began talks
with Ford Motor Co.,
General Motors and
Stellantis in summer,
demanding 46-per-cent
wage increases over the
life of the planned fourand-a-half-year
deal. The
union has since tempered
its demands, dropping the
percentage increase into
the 30s, while initiating a
Detroit Three faced collapse, Sweeney said.
Workers in Canada " didn't lose as much "
as the UAW members lost 14 years ago,
he said, so they shouldn't expect to get as
much back.
CAN'T COMPARE A DEAL THAT ISN'T DONE
Along with Unifor members at Ford
comparing their gains to " as yet unrealized "
expectations in the United States,
Ross said the heightened
sense of labour militancy
is also exerting influence.
As UAW members
at select U.S. assembly
plants and parts suppliers
continue to strike,
a contingent of Unifor
autoworkers has taken to
social media arguing that
the union should have
fought for more on the
picket line, she said. The
sentiment is that more
could have been achieved
through a strike than
at the bargaining table
alone, Ross said, though
that is far from a foregone
conclusion.
Stanford:
" The
assumption
that [the
UAW] is
demanding
more [than
Unifor] is
quite wrong.
I think you
could argue
they're trying
to catch up. "
PHOTO:
LINKEDIN
Unifor workers at Ford
appeared to be headed
for a strike as the deadline
for talks neared Sept.
18, but a last-minute offer
from Ford prompted the
union to extend the deadline 24 hours. The
bargaining committee finalized its threeyear
deal with the automaker the next
night.
While the Ford negotiations stopped
short of a strike, Ross said the tight ratification
margin should also put the automaker
on notice for the next round of talks in 2026.
" Signalling to the employer that everyone
is super-happy makes them feel complacent, "
she said. The narrow vote will
show Ford that they'll need to come to the
table with a strong offer next time as well,
she said. -ANC

Automotive News Canada - October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - October 2023