- After reaching a tentative agreement on Saturday with the United Auto Workers union, Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, is now facing a national labor strike in Canada.
- The new strikes in the Canadian province of Ontario are impacting two assembly plants that produce the Chrysler 300 sedan, Pacifica minivan, Dodge Challenger, and Charger muscle cars.
Lana Payne celebrates on stage as Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, announce Lana Payne as their new president to replace outgoing leader Jerry Dias in Toronto, Ontario, Canada August 10, 2022.
Cole Burston | Reuters
DETROIT – After reaching a tentative agreement on Saturday with the United Auto Workers union, Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, is now facing a national labor strike in Canada.
Canadian union Unifor has called for a national strike of over 8,200 autoworkers early Monday morning after failing to reach a new agreement by 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
The Canadian work stoppage comes just two days after Stellantis reached a tentative agreement with the UAW for approximately 43,000 U.S. autoworkers, following six weeks of targeted strikes starting on September 16.
These new strikes in Ontario’s assembly plants are impacting the production of the Chrysler 300 sedan, Pacifica minivan, Dodge Challenger, and Charger muscle cars.
Of particular note are the latter vehicles produced at Stellantis’ Brampton Assembly, as they are the final traditional V-8 models of the Dodge muscle cars before production stops at the end of the year.
The Canadian work stoppage comes less than three weeks after Unifor conducted a 12-hour national strike against General Motors when a tentative agreement was not reached by the union-set deadline.
Unifor, which represents 18,000 Canadian workers at Detroit automakers, opted for a traditional negotiation approach, negotiating with each automaker separately and using the deal previously reached with Ford as a “pattern” for GM and Stellantis.
This traditional patterned-bargaining approach differs from the UAW’s new strategy of bargaining with all three automakers simultaneously.
The UAW has been escalating strikes since September 14 when tentative agreements were not reached, opting for targeted “stand-up” strikes instead of nationwide walkouts.
However, after reaching a tentative agreement with Ford Motor, which still needs to be ratified by members, the UAW used that deal as a basis for proposals with Stellantis and GM.
