Canada's 24,000 auto workers deserve to share in the gains the auto makers have made since 2009 when a multi-million dollar government bailout and worker concessions helped keep a struggling industry in business, he said.
“The companies have profited because of our members' sacrifices. They have no economic or ethical right to demand further concessions,” Lewenza told a press conference Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto.
The CAW is holding its first formal meetings this week with each of the Detroit Three auto makers, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, in what some have described as the most crucial auto talks in years.
At stake are the wages of some of the country’s highest paid industrial workers, along with the future of auto industry investment in Canada, a key driver of Ontario’s economy.
GM Canada opened the talks Tuesday morning saying it wants to cut its hourly labour costs in Canada, Lewenza said.
While the company has yet to make specific proposals, Lewenza said, “they made multiple demands in multiple areas that we would consider concessionary.”
GM’s U.S. chief executive Dan Ackerson has described Canada as the most expensive place in the world to build cars.
GM Canada recently announced plans to close an older assembly line in Oshawa and move some of that production to a lower cost facility in the U.S.
The company declined to comment on its demands saying only that “the North American auto industry today faces extremely challenging competitive conditions.”
Ford of Canada will also be seeking more “overall labour cost competitiveness” both to protect its existing investment in Canada and also win new business, an official close to the talks said later.
Lewenza said Canada’s higher pay rates are offset by the higher profits the auto makers earn on vehicle sales here. The cost of living in Canada is higher, and the Canadian dollar is overvalued by 20 per cent relative to the U.S. greenback, a problem that can’t be solved in labour negotiations, Lewenza argued.
He added the union wants to work with the auto makers to make Canada’s plants among the world’s most productive. But it can’t go back to its membership seeking more concessions, not when the companies have returned to profitability.
His members want to win back things like the Christmas bonus they gave up in 2009 to help GM and Chrysler avert bankruptcy, he said. The union also gave up several dollars per hour in pay, agreed to a four-year wage freeze, lost bonuses and time off, while retirees gave up pension indexing.
While he said he doesn’t expect to regain all of the losses, the union can’t agree to any further concessions given the companies are now profitable.
“One way or another our members have to make some progress,” he said. He added the union would not agree to a U.S.-style two-tier wage system that would see new hires accept a lower pay grid.
Lewenza said it was too soon to say which auto maker the union will pick to negotiate a master agreement, which becomes the blueprint for the other companies.
The target last time, in 2008, was Ford. Ford is also looking at improving its overall labour-cost competitiveness in Canada, a senior official said Tuesday.
Lewenza said he’s hoping to have a deal in place before the current contract expires Sept. 17. Bargaining will resume after the CAW’s constitutional and collective bargaining conference ends Aug. 24.
The talks come amid strong growth in auto sales so far this year as pent up post-recession demand fuels purchases of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, a new report shows.
For the first six months, North America posted a double-digit increase in car sales, lifting purchases to the highest level since 2007, according to a global auto report by Scotiabank released Tuesday.
Light vehicle sales in North American have jumped 13 per cent so far this year.
Canadian auto sales are also beating expectations boosting the bank’s 2012 forecast to 1.68 million units, the second highest annual total on record.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Dana Flavelle
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