CAW says no to U.S. move

Chris Vander Doelen , CanWest News Service

Published: Saturday, November 10, 2007

WINDSOR, Ont. -- The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union was offered the chance to become a North American union by taking on 14,000 non-unionized U.S. employees of Magna International Inc., a top official of the Canadian union says.

Instead, the CAW turned down the opportunity to organize Magna's union-free American plants, says Hemi Mitic, assistant to CAW President Buzz Hargrove. "We represent workers in Canada," Mitic explained in an interview Friday.

Three weeks after the CAW announced its controversial "no strike" deal with Magna - given to the company in return for the chance to organize its 18,000 Canadian hourly workers - debate continues to rage within Canada's largest industrial union.

Should the union have given up such a key piece of labour's arsenal? Or was the chance to organize 45 plants belonging to Canada's largest automotive employer too juicy a plum to pass up?

Magna also has 18,000 hourly employees in the United States, divided among 54 plants south of the border. The UAW represents 4,000 of them, leaving 14,000 Americans outside of bargaining units.

Asked if the CAW was forced to agree to a no-strike clause or see the UAW brought in to sweep 18,000 Canadians into their fold, Mitic said:

"That wasn't part of the discussion. What was under discussion was whether or not we'd take the whole thing"

- all 32,000 Magna workers in North America without a union.

"But we said, 'We represent workers in Canada, the UAW represents workers in the United States.' If they (the UAW) don't to do it, maybe we'll take another look at it."

Windsor leaders of the CAW publicly back the controversial "no-strike" aspect of the deal Mitic and Hargrove have carved out with Magna. But there are a number of powerful critics elsewhere in the organization who are fighting it tooth and nail.

What if the no-strike clause spreads to other companies and other industries, they argue, eroding a key aspect of their power?

What if other parts companies start losing contracts to Magna? Magna has gained a key competitive advantage now that it can guarantee that parts deliveries will never - ever - be disrupted by a labour dispute.

The union's internal critics include some of its best-known names, including Sam Gindin, its former research director, and Chris Buckley, president of Local 222 in Oshawa. Buckley was campaigning for re-election Friday, and couldn't be reached for comment.

Another critic is Keith Osborne, plant chairman at Local 222's huge General Motors' unit in Oshawa. Osborne, who is also first vice president of the local, said the no-strike clause is a violation of a fundamental principle of unionism.

"My biggest concern is all the people who supply parts to GM," Osborne said in an interview Friday. "Lear, JCI, TDS - they're going to say they want a no strike deal like Magna. And if they don't get it, they'll shut down down and let Magna buy it."

Osborne thinks the deal with Magna is the thin edge of the wedge. Soon no-strike clauses will spill over into other companies in the auto industry, later it will invade other segments of the economy. Corporate CEO's would be "crazy" not to ask for the same deal, he said.

Mitic, a former Windsor line worker who has been one of Hargrove's right-hand men for years, finds these kinds of worries unwarranted.

"We didn't give up the right to strike because we never had it to start with" at Magna, Mitic argued Friday. Some other companies "may try to put it on the table," he conceded of the no-strike clause. "But I don't think you're going to see a big leap to doing this."

Tony Faria, a professor of business at the University of Windsor and an auto industry analyst, disagrees.

"I can't imagine companies not asking for it - just as they're going to ask for two-tier wages" in next year's labour negotiations with Detroit's Big Three automakers. Once it's made its way into one contract anywhere, other companies will ask for it," Faria said of the no-strike guarantee. "The union always asks for standard agreements. Why wouldn't the companies?"

Osborne has another thought: "What if Toyota said tomorrow, you can organize our plants but no strikes." After agreeing to the same deal to bring Magna's non-union employees into the CAW fold, "how could we say no?" to the famously union-shy Japanese, he asked rhetorically.

"Maybe I'm just fear-mongering. But once you open up that door.... It's no different than the shelf agreement we agreed to,"

Osborne said, referring to a 2006 re-opening of Local 222's contract with GM.

The union was asked to approve a competitive operating agreement, or COA, which led to sweeping changes in work rules and staffing levels that will save the company more than $100 million per year. The deal became a template which swept the Big Three.

"The threat was they would shut us down if we didn't. But once we did, everybody was asked to do one," Osborne said of the first COA. Deals based on the same work rules were later demanded, and approved, at every GM, Chrysler and Ford plant in North America.

Windsor Star

cvanderdoelen@thestar.canwest.com