Toronto, Canada, Sep 19 (EFE).- US carmaker Ford Motor and the Canadian union Unifor announced late Tuesday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement for the next few years.
File photo of Ford workers. EFE-EPA/Kai Försterling
The agreement now has to be ratified by the around 5,600 Ford workers represented by Unifor.
The details of the deal have not been released by either the company or the union.
“The gains achieved were hard fought for over weeks of negotiations at every subcommittee, local and main economic bargaining table. This painstaking work has resulted in fundamental, transformative gains that addressed our core priorities of pensions, wages and the EV transition,” Unifor, which represents about 20,000 workers at Canadian plants owned by Ford Motor, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis, said in a statement.
The agreement comes just hours before the strike deadline given by Unifor at Ford’s Canadian plants.
Early Tuesday, Unifor announced that it had decided to extend negotiations by 24 hours after receiving a “significant offer” from Ford, minutes before the collective agreement with Ford employees expired at 11:59 pm the previous night.
“We leveraged our union’s most powerful weapon: the right to strike,” it said.
The deal in Canada comes while the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the United States is negotiating a new contract agreement with GM, Ford and Stellantis for some 146,000 workers in the country.
Strikes at three US assembly plants of GM, Ford and Stellantis will enter the 6th day on Wednesday.
The UAW called the strikes after the deadline given by the union to the three major carmakers reach a labor agreement expired.
The US union has also warned that if an agreement is not reached before midnight on Friday, other factories will join the strike. EFE
jcr/pd
