CAW president Basil Hargrove had announced the deal with Ford September 12. The pact includes the elimination of 1,100 jobs over the next three years. A casting plant employing 530 workers will be shut down. Another 600 jobs will be cut at the Essex engine plant. Both plants are located in Windsor, across the river from Detroit. By 2008, the number of workers at Ford in Canada would decline from 11,600 to 10,500.

The CAW negotiated an increase in its restructuring benefit from a maximum of $60,000 to $70,000. The union says there are at least 600 people eligible for immediate retirement. Wages in the three-year deal will increase 1.5 percent the first year and 1 percent each of the following years. This is the lowest wage increase since 1987. In 2002, workers won increases of 3 percent each of the first two years of that contract and 2 percent the third.

“I describe it as a modest agreement, but a good agreement for tough times,” said Hargrove. The contract with Ford is supposed to set the pattern with the other two major auto companies.

Coming out of the ratification meeting in Windsor, Tony Masciotra, a tool and dye maker, commented, “We may be resolving our contract today, but we are in this together with Chrysler. We may be at the picket lines with them Tuesday night at 11 p.m. We are losing 1,000 jobs. But with Chrysler, the issue of outsourcing is even bigger.”

The CAW reached a tentative agreement with DaimlerChrysler on September 20. The company, which employs 11,400, withdrew its demand to close its Etobicoke casting plant near Toronto, but there will be fewer workers.

Hargrove told the media, “If we can find a way to modernize the plant, make it more productive, whether it’s Brampton or Windsor and we get the right commitments, there could be less jobs but no one will be on involuntary layoff.” DaimlerChrysler also has plants in Brampton and Windsor in Ontario.

GM, the biggest of the three companies, with 17,200 CAW members, is opposing the pension agreement reached with Ford. GM has 24,000 retirees compared to 10,000 for Ford and 9,000 for DaimlerChrysler.

In the Ford contract, the monthly amount paid to retirees is increased from Can$60 per year of service to Can$68, effective in 2007. According to CAW economist Jim Stanford, the increase is the smallest rise for retirees in the CAW’s history.

In 1996, workers struck GM for three weeks when the company refused the pattern negotiated at that time.  
 
 
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