Plant workers return for the 2:30 p.m. shift at the General Motors Oshawa Assembly Plant, in Oshawa, Ont., on Tuesday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
A tentative contract agreement between General Motors and the union representing Canadian autoworkers could end a strike of more than 4,000 auto workers that began early Tuesday.
GM said in a statement that work will resume at Canadian facilities Tuesday afternoon after it reached the agreement around 1 p.m. About 4,300 unionized workers went on strike at three GM plants in Ontario just after midnight.
The walkout came after Canadian union Unifor said GM was “stubbornly refusing” to match the three-year contract the labour union reached with Ford Motor, which offered wage increases of up to 25 per cent in Canada.
“When faced with the shutdown of these key facilities, General Motors had no choice but to get serious at the table and agree to the pattern,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne.
Payne said GM agreed to all outstanding issues including pensions, retiree income and converting temporary workers into permanent employees.
Unifor said strike actions are “on hold” to give union members time to vote on the tentative agreement.
The new agreement affects workers at GM’s assembly plant in Oshawa, a powertrain plant in St. Catharines, and a parts distribution centre in Woodstock.
Tentative deal halts Unifor strike at GM
Unifor president Lana Payne announces a tentative deal has been reached with General Motors after a 12-hour strike. The new contract follows the pattern agreement established with Ford last month and she expects it to form the basis for upcoming contract negotiations with Stellantis.
Pattern bargaining
Earlier, Payne said the union had a lot of bargaining leverage with GM because the Oshawa factory has been working around the clock to build profitable Chevrolet pickup trucks. In her remarks to reporters, she cited “demographics” as a major hurdle.
Unifor has used the “pattern bargaining” approach in its talks, first reaching a deal with Ford and then expecting GM and Stellantis to match. The United Auto Workers (UAW), on the other hand, broke with that approach under its new leadership.
“This is an agreement that is going to change people’s lives,” Payne said at a Tuesday news conference in Toronto. “Particularly folks who were in precarious employment, people who were in a progression grid that normally would have taken eight years to get to the top of and now they will be there in four years — they’ll be able to support their families and be the kind of contributors to their community that they would want to be.”
Striking members of Unifor picket outside of General Motors’ assembly complex in Oshawa, Ont. (Nathan Crocker/CBC)
Besides wage increases across the board, the new tentative agreement includes improvements to all pension plans, a three-per-cent increase in company contributions to retirement funds, reactivation of a cost of living allowance in December 2024, bonuses, and two new paid holidays for Family Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
If the three plant strike had continued, GM would have faced disruptions in production.
Workers in St. Catharines make engines for a variety of vehicles, powertrains for the Chevrolet Equinox and Corvette, and engine component parts.In Oshawa plant, workers build Chevrolet Silverado trucks, one of GM’s most profitable models, while the plant’s stamping operations supply various parts for GM North America. Lana Payne is national president for Unifor — the union behind these labour negotiations.
Wells Fargo said in a research note that Oshawa was the smallest of GM’s pickup plants, producing about 2,800 trucks per week. The St. Catharines’ plant has a wider impact since since V8 engines are used in most of GM’s large SUVs and heavy-duty full-size pickups, along with about half of its standard full-size pickups.
The walkout was set to intensify the headache faced by the automaker in the U.S. where it is racking up millions of dollars in daily losses to the UAW strike that started Sept. 15.
GM has lost 34,176 vehicles of production since the start of the UAW strike, according to an estimate by Deutsche Bank. The automaker said last week it had 442,586 vehicles in stock.
Unifor workers strike outside the General Motors St. Catharines powertrain plant in St. Catharines, Ont., Tuesday. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Up next for Unifor is bargaining a new collective agreement with Stellantis, the automotive manufacturing company that employs nearly 10,000 Canadians, Payne said.
“I expect that Stellantis will come here kicking and screaming the same way that General Motors did,” Payne said. “But our members at Stellantis deserve this pattern agreement too … so we’ll be fighting for them every step of the way.”
Stellantis makes a wide variety of vehicles including Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep and Ram Trucks.
In U.S., 25,000 autoworkers are on strike
In the United States, about 25,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) union members working for the Detroit Three automakers are on targeted strikes while UAW members at Volvo Group-owned Mack Trucks walked out on Monday after overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed five-year contract.
The three-year contract ratified last month with Ford affected more than 5,600 workers at its Canadian facilities. Unifor was able to reach a tentative deal without strike action.
The Canadian operations of the Detroit Three are much smaller than in the U.S. but each have critical factories in Canada.
“Everything our members do, from the trucks we assemble, the stamping plant we run, the engines and transmissions we build and the parts we deliver, are all critical to GM’s bottom line,” Unifor GM master bargaining chair Jason Gale said.
Unifor represents about 18,000 Canadian workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis.
Most job search advice is cookie-cutter. The advice you’re following is almost certainly the same advice other job seekers follow, making you just another candidate following the same script.
In today’s hyper-competitive job market, standing out is critical, a challenge most job seekers struggle with. Instead of relying on generic questions recommended by self-proclaimed career coaches, which often lead to a forgettable interview, ask unique, thought-provoking questions that’ll spark engaging conversations and leave a lasting impression.
Your level of interest in the company and the role.
Contributing to your employer’s success is essential.
You desire a cultural fit.
Here are the top four questions experts recommend candidates ask; hence, they’ve become cliché questions you should avoid asking:
“What are the key responsibilities of this position?”
Most likely, the job description answers this question. Therefore, asking this question indicates you didn’t read the job description. If you require clarification, ask, “How many outbound calls will I be required to make daily?” “What will be my monthly revenue target?”
“What does a typical day look like?”
Although it’s important to understand day-to-day expectations, this question tends to elicit vague responses and rarely leads to a deeper conversation. Don’t focus on what your day will look like; instead, focus on being clear on the results you need to deliver. Nobody I know has ever been fired for not following a “typical day.” However, I know several people who were fired for failing to meet expectations. Before accepting a job offer, ensure you’re capable of meeting the employer’s expectations.
“How would you describe the company culture?”
Asking this question screams, “I read somewhere to ask this question.” There are much better ways to research a company’s culture, such as speaking to current and former employees, reading online reviews and news articles. Furthermore, since your interviewer works for the company, they’re presumably comfortable with the culture. Do you expect your interviewer to give you the brutal truth? “Be careful of Craig; get on his bad side, and he’ll make your life miserable.” “Bob is close to retirement. I give him lots of slack, which the rest of the team needs to pick up.”
Truism: No matter how much due diligence you do, only when you start working for the employer will you experience and, therefore, know their culture firsthand.
“What opportunities are there for professional development?”
When asked this question, I immediately think the candidate cares more about gaining than contributing, a showstopper. Managing your career is your responsibility, not your employer’s.
Cliché questions don’t impress hiring managers, nor will they differentiate you from your competition. To transform your interaction with your interviewer from a Q&A session into a dynamic discussion, ask unique, insightful questions.
Here are my four go-to questions—I have many more—to accomplish this:
“Describe your management style. How will you manage me?”
This question gives your interviewer the opportunity to talk about themselves, which we all love doing. As well, being in sync with my boss is extremely important to me. The management style of who’ll be my boss is a determining factor in whether or not I’ll accept the job.
“What is the one thing I should never do that’ll piss you off and possibly damage our working relationship beyond repair?”
This question also allows me to determine whether I and my to-be boss would be in sync. Sometimes I ask, “What are your pet peeves?”
“When I join the team, what would be the most important contribution you’d want to see from me in the first six months?”
Setting myself up for failure is the last thing I want. As I mentioned, focus on the results you need to produce and timelines. How realistic are the expectations? It’s never about the question; it’s about what you want to know. It’s important to know whether you’ll be able to meet or even exceed your new boss’s expectations.
“If I wanted to sell you on an idea or suggestion, what do you need to know?”
Years ago, a candidate asked me this question. I was impressed he wasn’t looking just to put in time; he was looking for how he could be a contributing employee. Every time I ask this question, it leads to an in-depth discussion.
Other questions I’ve asked:
“What keeps you up at night?”
“If you were to leave this company, who would follow?”
“How do you handle an employee making a mistake?”
“If you were to give a Ted Talk, what topic would you talk about?”
“What are three highly valued skills at [company] that I should master to advance?”
“What are the informal expectations of the role?”
“What is one misconception people have about you [or the company]?”
Your questions reveal a great deal about your motivations, drive to make a meaningful impact on the business, and a chance to morph the questioning into a conversation. Cliché questions don’t lead to meaningful discussions, whereas unique, thought-provoking questions do and, in turn, make you memorable.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
CALGARY – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. reported a third-quarter profit of $2.27 billion, down from $2.34 billion in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to $1.06 per diluted share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 compared with $1.06 per diluted share a year earlier.
Product sales totalled $10.40 billion, down from $11.76 billion in the same quarter last year.
Daily production for the quarter averaged 1,363,086 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 1,393,614 a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Canadian Natural says it earned 97 cents per diluted share for the quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $1.30 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 90 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
CALGARY – Cenovus Energy Inc. reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year as its revenue edged lower.
The company says it earned $820 million or 42 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $1.86 billion or 97 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $14.25 billion, down from $14.58 billion in the same quarter last year.
Total upstream production in the quarter amounted to 771,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 797,000 a year earlier.
Total downstream throughput was 642,900 barrels per day compared with 664,300 in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Cenovus says its funds flow amounted to $1.05 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from adjusted funds flow of $1.81 per diluted share a year earlier.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
