Dive Brief:
- Unifor, a union representing more than 8,200 autoworkers employed by Stellantis in Canada, said it will begin negotiations with the automaker Wednesday.
- Unifor set a strike deadline of Oct. 29 at 11:59 p.m.
- The announcement comes days after Unifor approved a three-year collective bargaining agreement with General Motors that follows the pattern set by Ford Motor Co. last month.
Dive Insight:
Now that the union has inked deals with both Ford and GM, it will use those agreements to negotiate a new labor agreement with Stellantis.
Unifor’s negotiations with Stellantis, however, may prove more complicated than those with Ford and GM. Stellantis announced in May 2022 that it would invest about 3.6 billion Canadian dollars, then valued at $2.8 billion, to retool its assembly plants in Ontario, Canada, to produce electric vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles.
The facilities include the Brampton Assembly Plant, which builds the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger, and the Windsor Assembly Plant, which produces versions of the Chrysler Pacifica, Voyager and Grand Caravan.
Production at the Brampton plant will stop at the end of the year while Stellantis retools it. Stellantis plans to start manufacturing EVs at the facility, which employs nearly 2,300 hourly autoworkers, in 2025. But it’s unclear how many of those workers will return to work.
And, unlike the other Detroit Three automakers, Stellantis has a plant in Canada that manufactures EV batteries. It’s part of the automaker’s joint venture — NextStar Energy— with LG Energy Solution. Those workers are not yet unionized.
“Our union is looking forward to this next, and final round of talks with the Detroit automakers to secure the terms of our Canadian pattern and to make important additional gains on various Stellantis-specific workplace issues,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement. “We also have the added challenge of negotiating future product commitments for the Brampton Assembly plant that secures a future for all of our Stellantis members in the EV transition.”
Ford and GM recently agreed to provide Unifor members in Canada with higher wages, restore cost-of-living adjustments, halve the time required to reach the top of the pay scale and improve health benefits, among other concessions.
In addition to the automaker’s assembly plants in Ontario, Unifor represents Stellantis employees at the Etobicoke Casting Plant, which produces aluminum die castings for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles. It also represents Stellantis employees at parts distribution centers in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
