The Canadian Auto Workers union announced Sunday that they had reached a tentative agreement with General Motors of Canada which would contain significant sacrifices, but not any reduction to salary or pension benefits.

The agreement will still need to be voted on by the members of the union, says union president, Ken Lewenza.

“At 5:30 this morning, General Motors had stated to us that we have maintained our Canadian advantage for investment in Canada, that’s all that’s important to us,” said Lewenza to the New York Times.

General Motors is discussing a bailout package of about $6 billion in size from the Canadian government, but refused to respond to questions presented by the New York Times regarding savings with the union deal.

“The federal government demanded contract cuts as a condition for providing aid to the industry. If government doesn’t provide emergency assistance, the company will surely fail,” said Lewenza, discussing the desired bailout funds.

The contract does guarantee that base salaries would be frozen until September 2012, including those adjustments which would’ve been made based on quarterly cost-of-living adjustments (at least, until June of the same year — details at this point are unclear). Paid time off will also be reduced 80 hours (40 hours on top of the 40 hours which was already implemented as of January). Various adjustments to the pension funding may have been considered, without negatively impacting those receiving or counting on pension benefits.

 Print This   Email This