Canada auto union says won't accept two-tier wages

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Reuters

By John McCrank

TORONTO, March 25 (Reuters) - The Canadian Auto Workers union will not accept a U.S.-style two-tier wage deal when it meets with the "Big Three" automakers this summer for contract negotiations, union President Buzz Hargrove said on Tuesday.

"We are not accepting second-class workers in our workplaces," Hargrove told reporters in Toronto.

"It's my last set of negotiations and my legacy is not going to be that the sons and daughters of current workers that were hired over 20 years ago are going to come in at the same rate in 2008 as their parents did in '86 or '87."

While the CAW indicated it would go on strike rather than accept the kind of two-level wage deal the United Auto Workers union accepted in the United States, the Canadian union did say it would seek ways to save the struggling Detroit-based automakers money, such as finding more efficient ways of delivering retirees' benefits.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2538206020080325

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Good for the Canadians!

:yourock:

[harmonicon]

2. Good for them

These second class worker agreements (like the one that ended the California supermarket strike) need to be done away with. Union members who vote for them freak me out - yeah, they like the union when it helps them, but don't worry about stepping on the little guy.... huh... wonder why their ever needed to be a union in the first place if some folks think that's it's just dandy to have one person make more money for doing less work than another.

[diane in sf]

3. Good for the Canadians! --proud member AFL-CIO, AFT

[Vinca]

4. Kudos to the Canadians.

It's nice to know there are spinal columns somewhere in the western hemisphere.

[bean fidhleir]

5. Bravo, Canucks! Let's hope they can make it stick

[Acadia Blue]

6. You go dudes an dudettes! Tell the pigs where to put it.