OTTAWA – Stellantis employees ratify the final agreement secured in this year’s contract negotiations between Canadian union Unifor and the Detroit Three automakers.
The three-year deal covers 8,200 workers in Canada until September 2026.
Unifor says 60% of members at Stellantis’ Brampton and Windsor assembly plants, and its Etobicoke Casting Plant – all in Ontario – approved the tentative agreement reached Oct 30. The details were released Nov. 4.
Also, 86.5% of office, clerical and engineering staff voted yes for the agreement, which will protect against outsourcing, along with 85.2% of fire and security staff, who receive similar job guarantees.
The parts distribution center in Mississauga, ONT, ratified the agreement by an 86.1% margin, while it won 100% approval at the parts distribution center in Red Deer, Alberta.
Unifor President Lana Payne (pictured, below left) says: “Auto talks 2023 has delivered positive gains for our members in a major way, gains that will help raise our standard of living and build our communities.”
The agreement includes base hourly wage increases of nearly 20% for production workers and 25% for skilled trades workers over the agreement term to 2026; cost-of-living allowance adjustments; a reduction of wage progression scales from eight to four years; and a C$10,000 ($7,232) bonus for full-time employees. This will “help protect workers’ wages from rising inflation,” Payne says.
Unifor had insisted on Stellantis pension reforms (the first in 15 years) as a key to securing a deal, which halted a short one-morning strike on Oct. 30.
Other issues stressed as important by the union and addressed in the agreement, include staff protections for electric-vehicle retooling. Stellantis also agreed to increase supplemental unemployment benefit basic rates from 65% of pay to 70%.
At the Stellantis Windsor assembly plant, the company will make electric Dodge muscle cars while continuing to build internal-combustion-engine vehicles such as the Pacifica. Employees laid off over retooling will receive a lump sum of C$240 ($175) for every week they receive supplemental unemployment benefits.
The company has confirmed it will invest C$1.89 billion ($1.38 billion) at Windsor on the EV transition already under way – and scheduled for completion in 2025.
At the Brampton assembly plant, the company has committed to investing C$1.32 billion ($960 million), where it will build the next-generation Jeep Compass within a facility that will make both ICE vehicles and EVs. Stellantis also will handle stamping and welding, battery build work, body-in-white underbody and paint (underbody sealing and topcoat) at Brampton. Third shifts will be introduced at both assembly plants.
Stellantis also committed to C$34 million ($24.7 million) investment at the Etobicoke casting plant, insourcing oil pans and front covers and moving toward electrification, making battery-tray cast beams.
“Our bargaining team faced a unique set of challenges with so much uncertainty over the EV transition, the future of our facilities and a growing affordability crisis. This contract needed to deliver in a big way that ensured none of our members were left behind,” says Unifor Stellantis Master Bargaining Chair James Stewart.
A company statement says, “As Stellantis prepares to introduce more than 25 battery-electric vehicles in Canada and the United States by the end of the decade, as announced in its Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, the company’s operations in Canada will continue to play a critical role.”
Mark Stewart, Stellantis North America chief operating officer, says, “It was always our intention to reward our Unifor-represented employees for their contributions to our business during this round of bargaining.”
