CAW president Ken LewenzaMIKE CASSESE
Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza has excoriated General Motors Co. for reversing a pay cut imposed on managers and salaried employees in May, saying the move represents a betrayal of his members.
"For our members to watch as their managers have their compensation restored creates an understandable feeling among many that we have been taken to the cleaners," Mr. Lewenza wrote in a letter to Fritz Henderson, GM's chief executive officer.
"Our members are furious at this one-sided decision to reward white-collar managers for the company's initial recovery," he wrote. "Meanwhile, GM's production work force - the ones who, I remind you, build the cars which we want North Americans to buy again - labour on in the face of reduced compensation and intensified working conditions."
The GM move was effective Sept. 1 for U.S. and Canadian salaried employees but only applied to wages, General Motors of Canada Ltd. spokesman Stew Low said yesterday. Benefit reductions, such as increases in co-payments by salaried employees and changes in pensions, should be considered permanent, and there has been no restoration of bonuses or pay increases for salaried employees, Mr. Low noted.
He would not comment on the letter.
Mr. Lewenza said yesterday that he had not heard from Mr. Henderson, but that GM Canada's director of labour relations, Cheryl Ollila, had called him to express her dismay about the letter.
Ms. Ollila pointed out that salaried employees had actually taken a pay cut, not just had their pay frozen, Mr. Lewenza said. He said she also emphasized that salaried workers took significant benefit cuts prior to the sacrifices agreed to by CAW workers.
GM production workers at plants in Oshawa, St. Catharines and Windsor, Ont., did not agree to a wage cut, but their cost of living adjustments were eliminated, bonuses agreed to last year will not be paid and they surrendered one week of time off, on top of two weeks surrendered during contract negotiations in 2008.
The cuts in unionized benefits were effectively ordered by the federal and Ontario governments, which sent GM and the CAW back to the bargaining table in May after they had already reached a restructuring deal in March.
The governments said the March deal did not go far enough to cut GM's hourly labour costs in Canada and that GM would not qualify for government bailout loans if the two sides were not able to reach a deal.
The two governments eventually agreed to contribute about $10-billion to a combined bailout of the auto maker that was led by the U.S. government.