Ford Motor Company reached a tentative deal with unionized Canadian autoworkers on Monday night just before their contract deadline, delaying or possibly avoiding a potential strike.
Unifor, a Canadian trade union that represents autoworkers, decided on Monday, Sept. 18 to extend negotiations with the Detroit-based automaker for 24 hours after the union “received a substantive offer from the employer minutes before the deadline.” The union’s contract with Ford was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Monday, and workers were preparing to strike if that deadline wasn’t met.
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Last month, Unifor identified Ford as its target for negotiations and a potential strike, and planned to use their final agreement to later establish new contracts with General Motors and Stellantis. The Canadian union extended its contracts with GM and Stellantis amid the negotiations with Ford.
About 5,100 Unifor-represented autoworkers were preparing to strike against Ford as early as Tuesday morning. Ford has one assembly plant in Canada located outside of Toronto with 3,400 union workers, and two engine plants in Windsor where about 1,700 Unifor members work.
The union said late Monday that talks with Ford would be extended for a 24-hour period, and that bargaining would continue through the night. Still, Ford workers were asked to “maintain strike readiness.”
More information is expected to be shared on Unifor’s website here at some point on Tuesday.
Unifor’s contract with Ford was set to expire less than one week after the automaker’s contract expired with the United Auto Workers union in the U.S. There, the UAW on Friday declared a strike against each of the Big Three for the first time in history, opting not to extend any contracts or name a target among the companies.
About 13,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 autoworkers were striking as of Tuesday at three facilities: the GM Wentzville Assembly, the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex, and the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant (final assembly and paint only). More UAW members may be called on to strike as early as Friday, however, after the union president threatened expanded strikes if talks don’t make “serious progress” by Friday, Sept. 22.
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