#ContractNegotiation2012

Workers at Chrysler plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ontario ratified the CAW’s labor agreement by an overwhelming majority, despite a lack of new product or investment at either plant.

Did Ken Lewenza hose Sergio Marchionne and Chrysler? Ask me that a few days ago and I may have said yes. Now that the terms of the CAW and Chrysler have surfaced, I’m not so sure.

With a CAW labor contract expected to be announced today, Fiat has confirmed that cars built in Italy will be exported to markets like the United States, as Fiat looks beyond its ailing home market for growth.

CAW members ratified an agreement with Ford with 82 percent in favor of the four-year labor deal that brings an overhaul to the automaker’s pension plan for assembly plant workers, and extends the new hire wage climb process.

As the Friday workday winds down, we’re still without an agreement between the CAW and Chrysler. Ford and GM are waiting on ratification by the CAW members at their plants, and it’s looking more and more like Ken Lewenza and the Canadian Auto Workers were able to outmaneuver Sergio Marchionne.

The CAW and General Motors have reached a tentative agreement, sticking closely to the “pattern” set by negotiations between Ford and the CAW.

The Windsor Star is reporting that the CAW “has all but given up” on trying to re-open the Oshawa Consolidated line that was closed earlier this year. The Star quotes CAW President Ken Lewenza as saying

“We’re going to keep raising it until the deal is done…But the reality is vehicle production is based on market and market is based on capacity and GM told us they don’t need the capacity.”

Ford and the CAW have reached a 4 year collective agreement to Sept 2016. Details from the CAW press conference below.

A press conference at 4 P.M. will serve as a sort of half-time update to the looming CAW strike deadline, set for 11:59 P.M. today – but CAW President Ken Lewenza told the CBC that

“We do not have a deal as of right now but … we’re picking away and we are darn close to a deal,”

With the CAW’s strike deadline set for 11:59 P.M tonight, the union will apparently focus on Ford as the target for a collective agreement, while also remaining in talks with Chrysler and General Motors.

In this episode of Two Steps Forward, One Step Back , the CAW’s Dino Chiodo, chairman of the union’s master bargaining committee for Chrysler and the President of Local 444 in Windsor, appeared to shut the door on a UAW-style two-tier wage structure for new hires.

As negotiations between the Big Three and the CAW continue to grind away, Sergio Marchionne had more strong language for the union.

With the CAW’s strike deadline just four days away, the union has apparently tabled a proposal to reduce wages for new hires, a move that would stop short of a true two-tier wage system, but meet a major demand of the Big Three auto makers.

For all the rhetoric being passed back and forth between the OEMs and the CAW in this round of contract negotiations, the overwhelming feeling from our commenters is that there will be no strike, compromise will be had, and somehow, both sides will play it off as a victory. The latest bulletin from the CAW seems to support that notion.

With the CAW’s strike deadline looming, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is taking a harder line in the media, pushing his vision of a profit-sharing agreement between Chrysler and the CAW, while boldly stating what everyone knows, but is afraid to say; auto makers have “other options” when it comes to building cars.