CAW workers take a second vote on concessions for Chrysler

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Sunday, March 11, 2007
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CAW workers take a second vote on concessions for Chrysler

Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News

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Canadian Auto Workers at a Chrysler Group plant in Brampton, Ont., are voting today on whether to accept concessions they rejected last month.

The vote comes after a meeting today where union leaders emphasized that the cuts are needed to protect their jobs and secure future work for the plant.

Chrysler, a unit of Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG, told the CAW it would not move forward on a planned $700 million investment in Brampton because workers rejected the concessions, which include a pay cut off $115 a week and the outsourcing of janitorial jobs, according to union officials.

In a meeting this afternoon at Pearson Convention Centrein Brampton, an overwhelming majority of 2,500 workers decided to take another vote on the concessions package, CAW spokesman Jim Pare said. The results are expected be released later today.

The meeting was described as raucous by CAW leaders and rank-and-file members who were interviewed via telephone by the News.

"We had a very tough meeting," said Ken Lewenza, chairman of the CAW's DaimlerChrysler master bargaining committee. "There was a lot of frustration from Brampton members." Lewenza addressed the workers and spelled out Chrysler's hard-line stance and its refusal to renegotiate.

"There is a total lack of trust directed at the corporation and the union heard most of that frustration," Lewenza said.

Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff declined to comment.

Several workers at the Brampton facility who voted against the deal the first time around said they will now vote to accept the concessions. The workers said their earlier rejection wasn't specifically about the concessions. They wanted to speak out against the growing tension between the rank-and-file and CAW leaders, who are trying to hammer out plant-by-plant deals with the struggling automaker.

Like rivals Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., Chrysler wants concessions from local plants before they are awarded future work.

"A lot of us voted no to speak out against the unfolding mistrust with our union," said Dan Ciurlia, who's worked at the Brampton plant for 27 years. "We understand the big threat of globalism. We understand that our jobs can go away. People are scared. But we are being told to make decisions with really no information and very quickly. The workers want to know if the union leadership is truly going to stand up for us."

CAW leader Lewenza acknowledged that the some of the rancor at today's meeting reflected workers' anger the union officials about the process of local agreements.

"They weren't given much to time to react because the company gave us little to time react," Lewenza said. "We had three weeks to make a deal and offer it to our membership. One thing I know for sure, in the future we have to engage our members in the process early on. It frustrates me. (CAW president) Buzz Hargrove is the number one person in the country who is challenging the corporation, challenging the government, about saving auto jobs. But that message is not getting to the shop floor."

The Brampton facility builds the Chrysler 300C sedan and the Dodge Magnum wagon and Charger sedan in Brampton. Soon, the factory will also build the 2008 Dodge Challenger. Chrysler planned to pump $700 million into the factory to support 2010 and 2011 models and add a fifth vehicle analysts predict could be a production version of the concept Imperial large sedan. That vehicle would be built on the next-generation of the LX platform that underpins the 300C and other models, to be called LY.

All three Detroit automakers are trying to cut costs as they restructure to restore profits. Chrysler is in the midst of cutting 2,000 jobs in Canada. Of that, 1,300 are in Windsor -- currently home to 5,500 Chrysler employees who build SUVs and minivans. Brampton will lose 345 jobs.

Chrysler lost $1.5 billion last year and announced a turnaround plan in February that would trim production capacity by 400,000 over the next three years by idling one factory, eliminating shifts at others and cutting 16 percent of its workers, including 2,000 union jobs in Canada.

Chrysler wants the Brampton workers to give up "premium pay" that was negotiated when the company was in much better financial shape. The proposed concessions don't cut hourly wage rates but eliminate pay for about 40 minutes a day -- time spent not working but preparing for work. Chrysler also wants to outsource about 40 janitorial jobs to union workers who would get a lower wage.

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Chrysler's Brampton plant employees agree to pay cut

RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR
Members of Chrysler's 3,000-plus union membership from the Brampton plant gather on March 11 at Pearson Convention Centre to talk about competitiveness and the possibility of building new models at the plant. The union members voted to support a pay cut. Email story
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Mar 11, 2007 08:23 PM
Canadian Press

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Hundreds of workers at a Chrysler plant in Brampton voted in favour of supporting two key labour requests from the car manufacturer Sunday.

The workers, who are members of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, agreed to let Chrysler eliminate shift premiums and outsource janitorial services on the condition that the automaker maintains its intention to invest $700 million in the plant northwest of Toronto.

The investment will allow the plant to produce a greater variety of models, which ensures greater job security for its workers.

But relinquishing the shift premiums means employees will lose roughly $5,000 from their annual salary.

The CAW urged workers to accept the proposal in spite of the fact that they had previously rejected it.

By the time the votes were tallied late Sunday afternoon, however, they had agreed to the changes by a significant margin.

Skilled trade workers voted 256-to-15, or 94 per cent in favour of the concessions, and production workers voted 1164-to-384, or just over 75 per cent to accept them.

For now, the vote remains only a nod of support from union workers.

Until the automaker agrees to the workers’ condition of investment, nothing is set in stone.

“There is a board of directors meeting on Wednesday, and at that meeting there will be decisions made on investments,” said Jim Pare, CAW communications director, of the implications for the vote.

“So this agreement will only come into place if the new investment is put into this plant.”

Chrysler previously said it would make the investment and would add another vehicle - the full-sized Chrysler Imperial - later this decade in a plan to make the Brampton assembly plant a flexible factory, capable of building four or five models at the same time.

But the restructuring automaker had threatened to scrap the investment unless workers agreed to the changes.

Previously, the plant’s 3,000 workers had voted down the planned changes when DaimlerChrysler, the carmaker’s parent company, announced a round of cuts that would eliminate 13,000 jobs at North American operations, including 2,000 in Canada.

The parent company is also considering the sale or spinoff of the Chrysler division and has been in talks with companies around the world.

The CAW has made concessions with other automakers lately in order to secure new investments in Canada, specifically GM Canada, which is building the new Chevrolet Camaro at a plant in Oshawa.

In Brampton, the Chrysler plant now builds three models, the Chrysler 300 sedan, Dodge magnum wagon and Charger sports car. This June, the plant will start producing the new Callenger muscle sports car.

The CAW is worried that demand for the current models is softening and the plant’s three-shift a day operation can’t be sustained without the estimated 40,000 to 50,000 new Imperials that would be built if Chrysler goes ahead with its planned expansion.

DaimlerChrysler declined to comment on the talks on Sunday, saying they were strictly a union matter.

“We have chosen to decline comment primarily because this is a union process,” spokesman Ed Saenz said Sunday.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove was not present for the talks.

He was due to fly out of the Caribbean on Sunday morning but his flight was cancelled and he could not attend the meeting as a result.