Big Three US Automakers Open Negotiations With Canada Union

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published August 12, 2016 | 11:56 AM

DETROIT, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Augst,2016) - Difficult negotiations between Detroit's Big Three automakers and employees in Canada have opened with the workers' union taking a hard line over warnings the country's auto industry is under serious threat. Canadian plants have steadily lost jobs to Mexico during the past 25 years, and unless the negotiations produce job guarantees and investment commitments, the auto industry will continue to contract, Jerry Dias, president of the union representing 23,000 workers for General Motors, Ford Motor Co.

and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in Canada -- said on Thursday. "We are at a crossroads," he told reporters during a news conference after negotiations with Fiat Chrysler and Ford opened in Toronto on Thursday.

"There will be no deals with any of the companies without commitments from each of them for investments in Canada," said Dias, who heads the Unifor labor union. Negotiations with GM began on Wednesday. The union wants guarantees GM will build new products at the company's assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, a commitment from Ford to build a new engine at its motor plant in Windsor, Ontario and an investment by Fiat Chrysler at the automaker's plant in Brampton, Ontario.