Bargainers for Lear Corp. and Unifor have agreed on another tentative new contract for striking workers in Ajax, Ont., just two days after Lear said its seating plant there would be closed because an earlier deal was rejected.
Unifor Local 222 tweeted news of the deal at about 1:20 a.m. ET on Friday. A ratification meeting will take place at 4 p.m. ET today at the Unifor Local 222 Union Hall. No other details are available.
Lear spokesman Mel Stephens declined to comment beyond confirming a deal was reached.
Colin James, president of Local 222, said he believes a yes vote on the ratification may save the plant.
The plant’s 320 workers have been on strike since April 28 over disagreements about economic issues such as wages and benefits. Unifor and Lear reached a tentative deal earlier this week, but it was rejected by 94 percent of the members who voted on May 1. That led Lear to tell the union in a letter it would close the plant.
James said intervention from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles helped the two sides reach a deal. The Lear strike has shut down production at FCA’s Brampton, Ont., assembly plant, which builds the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger.
James said it was clear during negotiations that Lear was not bluffing when it said it would close the plant and that the company could revert to that decision should workers reject the new tentative deal.
He credited an FCA representative who was present for the negotiations for helping to break the logjam.
James said when talks resumed after Lear sent its letter “it was clear they were still closing the facility.”
James said the FCA representative made it clear he was there to facilitate a deal, telling negotiators: “Don’t waste my time. I came out here to try to reach some sort of resolution.”
Getting Brampton back on line
Should a majority of the plant’s 320 workers vote to ratify the contract, James said they would get back to work on Saturday to help get the Brampton plant back online as soon as possible.
James declined to give specifics about the deal, but broadly said that while Lear made some concessions, the contract still falls short on some of the union’s original goals.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but at least we had a third-party involved to help resolve this,” he said.
Unifor sought to raise workers’ wages and benefits to levels comparable to those at a nearby Lear seating plant. The pay disparity dates back to the recession, when the Ajax plant closed in 2009 due to General Motors closing a truck assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont. The Ajax plant re-opened in 2010 to supply the FCA Brampton plant, but workers took a steep pay cut as a result.
Unifor Local 1285 President Jaspal Brar, who represents workers at the Brampton plant, said Thursday that production there stopped due to the strike.
According to the Automotive News Data Center in Detroit, U.S. inventory levels for the Chrysler 300 stood at 35 days of supply on April 1, down from 41 days on March 1. Dodge Charger supply stood at 80 days, down from 82 in March, and Dodge Challenger inventory was at 74 days, down from 85 days. Average car inventory across all brands was at 66 days on April 1, while FCA averaged 79 days.
'Recent developments'
Lear said in its letter to Unifor on May 2 that it was closing the plant due to the ongoing strike and because of “recent developments from our customer regarding the future work” at Brampton.
It was not clear what those developments were. Each model is due for a refresh in 2019. An FCA spokeswoman did not return voicemails seeking comment.
You can reach Greg Layson at jirwin@crain.com