Cami auto workers set to vote on attempted deal between union, GM

Workers at Cami Assembly in Ingersoll have reached an attempted agreement with GM Canada, their union says.

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Details of the attempted agreement will be shared with workers at a ratification meeting Sept. 22, Unifor 88 said in a statement issued early on Wednesday.

The union represents about 1,300 workers at the Ingersoll plant and has been in bargaining negotiations since early September.

The plant assembles two versions of the BrightDrop, a fully electric commercial van. The workers were seeking a return to full-time hours and stable shifts, a union representative told The London Free Press in an earlier interview.

At the moment, workers are scheduled for two-week shifts and then have two weeks off work. The union is seeking a bump in unemployment pay for workers when they’re off those two weeks.

The union was also seeking increases in wages, benefits and pensions.

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“We’ve been rotating shifts for about three years and we want job stability,” Unifor Local 88 chairperson Mike Van Boekel said. “We want to get the plant running again full-time and address monetary needs, too. It’s been a tough go the last three years.”

A deal struck in 2023 between Unifor and its other GM Canada plants included general wage increases in each year of the agreement with 10 per cent in year one, two per cent in year two and three per cent in year three. The cost of living allowance (COLA) will also be reinstated in December 2024.

By the end of that three-year agreement, a top-rate production assembler will be paid $44.52 per hour and a skilled trades worker will be paid $55.97 per hour.

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