News & Events Archived Newsletters CONTACT 2007 November 23, 2007CAW Auto Parts Workers Vote on Magna Agreement
CAW shop floor leadership from independent automotive parts plants across Ontario have voted overwhelmingly in support of the Framework of Fairness Agreement between the union and parts maker Magna.
After a detailed presentation at CAW Local 1520 hall on November 19, followed by a lively debate with speaker after speaker coming to the microphones, more than 300 of approximately 325 elected in-plant shop floor leadership at the meeting voted in support of welcoming all Magna workers into CAW under the FFA.
CAW President Buzz Hargrove said the Framework of Fairness Agreement with Magna provides the opportunity for Magna workers at all locations to join the CAW at a critical time for auto assembly, auto parts and other manufacturing sector workers.
"This is about the future of thousands of unorganized parts workers at Magna having an opportunity to vote for a union without interference from management," Hargrove said.
With the federal government refusing to deal with unfair trade as well as the unprecedented high value Canadian dollar, the auto parts, auto assembly and the entire manufacturing sector in Canada continues to lose thousands of jobs.
Earlier this month more than 250 workers at Windsor Modules, a division of Magna, voted by 87 percent, to join the CAW under the Framework of Fairness Agreement, as well as approving their first CAW negotiated collective agreement.
New Brunswick Announces Minimum Wage Hike
New Brunswick's Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Ed Doherty announced that on March 31, 2008 New Brunswick will raise its minimum wage from $7.25 to $7.75 per hour.
This fifty cent hike in the minimum wage is the largest one-time increase in the province's history. It will also mark the fourth increase to the minimum wage rate since 2005.
The increase will provide the most assistance to those working in the province's low-wage food service and retail industries, despite resistance from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association.
Once the rate hike comes into effect next spring, New Brunswick will no longer carry the dubious distinction of having the lowest minimum wage in Canada.
Harper Government's Failure to Act Means More Devastation
The devastating news that auto parts maker Lear Corporation is closing its Windsor plant with the loss of more than 160 jobs is another tough blow for workers and a community already reeling from high unemployment, CAW President Buzz Hargrove says.
Hargrove blasted the federal Conservative government for standing idly by while unfair trade deals and the high Canadian dollar wreak havoc on the Canadian auto sector and Canadian manufacturing overall.
'Lear's announcement today is another example of the devastating closures that continue to rip through the auto parts, auto assembly and manufacturing sectors,' Hargrove said.
'The Harper government's refusal to take action on unfair trade agreements and the high value of the Canadian dollar is causing severe hardship for thousands of Canadian workers, their families, many communities and especially Windsor, which has the highest unemployment rate of any major Canadian city.'
Auto imports from Korea, Japan and the European community continue to take market share away from North American auto makers at a time when North American manufacturers are refused the same access into those markets.
Hargrove is once again calling on the Prime Minister to take four immediate steps to deal with the crisis. These include:
- Withdrawing immediately from negotiations with the government of South Korea for a free trade agreement that will significantly worsen the lopsided automotive trade deficit Canada has with Korea;
- Demanding the Harper government give notice to the governments of Japan, South Korea, China, and the European Union that Canada will not tolerate the one-way inflow of automotive imports;
- In addition the Conservative government must work with the Bank of Canada to reduce interest rates, and signal to currency markets that the dollar's current levels are undesired and unsustainable;
- Act immediately with other auto stakeholders to finally develop and implement a long-awaited auto strategy for Canada that would include supports for new investment, infrastructure, skills and other essential features.
Fighting to Protect Pensions for Workers
CAW Retirees are urging changes in legislation to stop the erosion of private pensions and to protect workers' pensions in a plant closure.
In a recent presentation to the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions the CAW's Retired Workers' Advisory Executive spoke on three issues: Expanding the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security to give pension plan coverage to more workers, requiring employers to index pensions and allow workers to transfer their pension service from one employer pension plan to another plan, and protection of pension benefits in a plant closure.
Employers are telling the Commission that they bear too much risk in funding pension plans and they need some relief. The CAW Retirees asked the Commission to recognize the "risks" that workers face in the pension promise, particularly when there is a bankruptcy. Brian Gilles, former Plant Chair at Local 89, General Chemical, in Amherstberg, and Glen Bradley, former President Local 1997, Slater Steel in Welland, outlined the terrible cost to workers, families, and the community when their plants closed. In both cases, the members lost their health care benefits and their pensions were cut by 35 percent.
"People got their pension benefit cut and they lost their drug plan. Some people have drug bills of $700 a month," said Brian Gilles.
Glen Bradley told the Commission that workers feel shock and hopelessness when their benefits suddenly disappear. "Some people had to sell their homes because they could not afford their mortgage payments. It is just wrong to work 30 or more years and then lose everything that you worked for."
The Retirees made a number of recommendations to improve pension benefit security, including increasing the Ontario Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund benefit (which currently only covers $1,000 of pension benefits). Another is for the Ontario government to take on a greater responsibility for overseeing employer-sponsored pensions.
Rising Dollar a Hazard to Canadian Manufacturing Jobs
The rising Canadian dollar is costing tens of thousands of good manufacturing jobs and if it remains at or near parity with the U.S. dollar it will cost Canada another 300,000 jobs in the next two-to-four years, CAW Economist Jim Stanford says.
In a paper presented to the House of Commons Finance Committee on November 20, Stanford called for immediate action by the federal government and the Bank of Canada to reduce the high value of the Canadian dollar and ease the growing pressure on the manufacturing sector.
Since 2002, more than15,000 jobs have been lost in auto parts facilities alone, and at least another 10,000 more auto parts jobs will disappear in the coming year without dramatic change, he said.
"The federal government and the Bank of Canada have both declared, implicitly and explicitly, that there is nothing they can do to tame the loonie's flight," Stanford states.
"This amounts to a blatant shirking of economic responsibility. Other countries, including those far less vulnerable to a downturn in U.S. bound exports than we are, do a fine job of managing their currency risk. Our policy-makers can and must do the same, using tools and techniques which reflect Canada's current economic reality."
To read the complete submission go to:
www.caw.ca/whoweare/CAWpoliciesandstatements/ pdfs/DollarHearings.pdf
