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About 4,300 unionised workers went on strike at three General Motorsfacilities in Canada from Monday midnight after a deadline to negotiate a new deal lapsed, piling pressure on the automaker grappling with an industrial action in the US.
The walkout by workers came after the union said GM was "stubbornly refusing" to match the contract the labour group agreed with Ford Motor, which offered wage increases of up to 25% to workers in Canada.
"The company continues to fall short on our pension demands, income supports for retired workers, and meaningful steps to transition temporary workers into permanent, full-time jobs," Unifor National President Lana Payne said.
The union had set a deadline of Monday midnight for a new deal with GM after the previous collective agreements with the Detroit Three automakers expired on Sept. 18.
GM said it will continue talks with Unifor but the walkout adds to the headache faced by the automaker in the US where it was racking up millions of dollars in losses per week due to the UAW strike.
GM has lost 34,176 vehicles of production since the start of the UAW strike in September, according to an estimate by Deutsche Bank. The automaker, however, said last week it had 442,586 vehicles in stock.
Unifor said it would go on strike at GM's Oshawa assembly complex, St. Catharines powertrain plant and the Woodstock parts distribution centre, but members at the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, will work as they are covered by a separate agreement.
Workers at the Powertrain Plant make engines for a variety of vehicles, powertrains for the Chevrolet Equinox and Corvette, as well as engine component parts.
At the Oshawa plant, workers build light- and heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado trucks while the plant's stamping operations supply various parts for GM North America.
The union has resorted to pattern bargaining, under which one agreement is used as a benchmark to negotiate with other parties.
The labour group represents about 18,000 workers at the Canadian facilities of Ford, GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
Unions have been increasingly resorting to strikes across sectors from airlines to automakers, buoyed by a tight labour and favourable public opinion in the US, even though union memberships have fallen.
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