Union: Close to a Deal with GM Canada

TORONTO September 17, 2002 Mid-day, Reuters is reporting that the head of the Canadian Auto Workers union said he was 90 percent certain a deal with General Motors of Canada could be reached before the Tuesday midnight deadline.

"We have narrowed the issues to the point where we can express a considerable amount of optimism that we can get a settlement here before the plants were scheduled to go down at midnight tonight," Buzz Hargrove said at a press conference.

But Hargrove, whose union represents the almost 19,000 hourly workers at the automaker's Canadian operations, said there are still outstanding issues that could prevent a new three-year contract from being reached before the deadline.

"There still are a number of issues at both the national level, at the master bargaining committee level, the subcommittee level, as well as the local level that could cause us to slip into a strike," he said.

Hargrove was unwilling to provide details at this late stage in the bargaining, but said there was still no agreement on a new product for the recently closed plant in St. Therese, Quebec, and that there were still unresolved issues surrounding GM's defense and locomotive complex in London, Ontario, which the company is looking to sell.

Contracts with the 44,000 workers at the three largest Canadian car companies -- GM, Ford of Canada and DaimlerChrysler Canada will expire at midnight on Tuesday.

If a deal is struck with GM, the union will name its second target company for negotiations. If no deal is reached, workers will hit the picket lines.

"I would say we have a pretty good chance of getting it all done. I mean, it's never easy. I don't want to characterize this as it's going to be a slam-dunk," GM spokesman Stew Low said.

"There's still some tough issues on the table to be resolved. There's no reason why we can't get there with the time that we have in front of us."

In the United States, automaker contracts do not expire for another year.

Vehicle and parts production in Canada and the United States are closely linked, so a Canadian strike would have a major impact across North America.

Only in 1993 and 1999 were automaker contract negotiations settled without strikes.