Workers at CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont., ratify agreement with GM

Production and skilled trades workers at the General Motors assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., have ratified a contract agreement with the automaker.

The 2,700 workers are members of Unifor, the new union created by the merger of the Canadian Auto Workers with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.

Unifor says the workers at the plant, known as CAMI, voted 90 per cent in favour of the four-year agreement on Sunday, and that the agreement includes a $3,000 signing bonus and annual lump sum payments of $2,000 in each of 2014, 2015 and 2016. It also provides full-time jobs to about 300 temporary workers.

The agreement includes a company demand that new employees enter into a defined contribution pension plan.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias called the new agreement a beachhead in the union’s campaign to win good, permanent jobs in Canada’s increasingly precarious jobs market.

“This was not an easy round of negotiations, but the committee managed to carve out some important victories, including breaking the company’s reliance on temporary work,” Dias said.

Unifor plant chairman Mike Van Boekel said the contract makes important inroads in workplace health and safety, job security and skilled trades, including the creation of eight new apprenticeship opportunities at the plant.

The CAMI workers are represented by Unifor Local 88, and manufacture the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain vehicles.
In March, GM announced it was investing $250 million in new equipment at the plant so it could build a wider variety of vehicles at a lower cost.

North American automakers have been gaining momentum recently as the industry recovers from the severe downturn that started in late 2008. Automakers posted their best sales in a decade last year, up almost six per cent, and the CAMI plant’s two vehicles were strong sellers in GM’s lineup.

Industry observers have predicted 2013 North American sales will surpass last year’s as the U.S. economy revives from the recession.