80% of Unifor members vote in favour of new contract at GM

Canada’s largest private-sector union says workers at General Motors Co. have a new three-year collective agreement, with 80.5 per cent of them ratifying it in a vote held online and in person.

Unifor says the terms of the deal matched the contract agreed to last month at Ford Motor Co., where 54 per cent of union members voted to accept the deal.

However, a majority of workers in the skilled trades divisions at Ford’s plants in Oshawa, Ont., and Oakville, Ont., voted down the contract by an undisclosed margin.

General Motors agreed to follow the terms set by the Ford contract about 12 hours after Unifor members went on strike last week at GM’s Oshawa assembly plant, the St. Catharines, Ont., propulsion plant, and the Woodstock, Ont., parts distribution centre.

The contract includes base hourly wage increases of nearly 20 per cent for production and 25 per cent for skilled trades, a faster timeline for workers to reach the top wage tier, improvements to pensions and two new paid holidays.