Unifor workers at Stellantis NV Stellantis NV have ratified new contracts that raise wages by a minimum of 20 per cent over three years, marking the end of the union’s three-month round of bargaining with the Detroit Three automakers in Canada.
About 8,200 Stellantis workers were eligible to vote on the agreements, which cover production workers, skilled tradespeople, clerks and engineering department employees.
Production workers and skilled tradespeople voted 60-per-cent in favour of their contract, while office workers voted 87 per cent for their deals, which provides $10,000 signing bonuses, a shorter path to senior pay rates and better pensions. Workers will receive pay raises of 10 per cent in the first year, and 2 per cent and 3 per cent in the following years, plus cost-of-living allowances. Skilled-trades workers get an additional 2.75 per cent in year one of the contract and 2.5 per cent in year three.
“Unifor members at Stellantis will receive the same significant wage increases, pension improvements and electric-vehicle-transition income security measures as Unifor members at Ford and General Motors,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne in a statement. “This contract also confirms investment and product commitments for Windsor, Brampton and Etobicoke, including the retooling of Brampton assembly to build future EVs.”
Stellantis said the agreements include provisions that will add capacity at the three production plants, as well as the expected return of third shifts in Brampton and Windsor. “As Stellantis prepares to introduce more than 25 battery-electric vehicles in Canada and the United States by the end of the decade … the company’s operations in Canada will continue to play a critical role,” Stellantis said in a statement.
Stellantis, maker of Jeep, Dodge and other brands, makes minivans in Windsor and sedans in Brampton. It also has a parts factory in Toronto, and is Unifor’s biggest auto maker employer.
The Stellantis workers staged a seven-hour strike on Oct. 31 before the two sides agreed on a deal.