Canadian union ratifies three-year contract with Chrysler

DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler employees represented by the Canadian Auto Workers ratified a three-year contract that cuts about 1,000 jobs and calls for the automaker to invest in some Canadian operations.

The vote was 86 percent in favor, said Jim Pare, a spokesman for the Toronto-based union. The union is negotiating with General Motors Corp., with a strike deadline of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. GM hasn't said whether it would match basic terms in accords with Chrysler and Ford Motor Co., the union said Sunday night.

Chrysler, the third-largest U.S. automaker, reached a deal on Sept. 20 that calls for an investment of C$575 million ($492 million) in a Windsor, Ontario, minivan plant. Chrysler also will keep open a Toronto casting plant while cutting jobs there. The union agreed to manufacturing changes that would reduce employment and improve efficiency at Windsor and a Brampton, Ontario, plant that makes the 300 sedan.

"We've negotiated some very far-reaching changes," union President Buzz Hargrove said in a statement. "But our union has never shied away from change. In fact, if we can manage change in a way that strengthens the Canadian auto industry without sacrificing our members, then we will embrace it."

The CAW, in a statement tonight, quoted GM negotiator Al Green, the company's vice president of operations at personnel in Canada, as saying GM wasn't prepared to make an offer on financial issues, including wages and benefits.

"It is not clear how much progress can be made" until the offer is made, Hargrove said in the statement. GM spokesman Stew Low declined to comment. The union statement quoted Green as saying he would call Hargrove tomorrow.

The three U.S.-based automakers began negotiations with the union in July, pressing to curb cost increases in Canada. GM had a $1.39 billion first-half loss and Ford's North American auto operations have lost money in three of the past four quarters. Chrysler had told the union it couldn't afford to maintain wage and benefit increases of past contracts.

The Chrysler vote was 4,234 in favor and 669 opposed, the union said in a statement.

The ratification vote shows the union and its members "expressed their commitment to enhancing DaimlerChrysler's operational excellence, cost competitiveness and job security," Mark Gendregske, the company's vice president of human resources in Canada, said in a statement.