The President of Unifor Local 200 in Windsor is 'elated' with the tentative agreement between Unifor and Ford Motor Company.
On Tuesday evening it was announced by Unifor that a tentative agreement had been reached, covering more than 5,600 members at the Canadian Ford facilities.
John D'Agnolo, who also is the Chair of the Ford Master Bargaining Committee, says that while it was an exhausting 48 hours of bargaining, but it was important to push forward to support the members.
The contract between Unifor and Ford expired Monday at 11:59 p.m., however just minutes before the strike deadline Ford made a "significant offer" to the union.
Unifor stated that the offer was significant enough to allow for a 24-hour extension.
On August 29, Unifor selected Ford Motor Company as the target company, focusing on negotiations with Ford to set the pattern agreement for the union's 18,000 members.
D'Agnolo says if the deal is ratified, it will move onto Stellantis and General Motors.
"Then the members will obviously see it through the highlight packages, and then the Stellantis leadership or the GM [General Motors] leadership, whoever is next, will be coming to Toronto to start their bargaining."
He says his message to workers is to wait and see.
"You're going to hear a lot of rumours at times, you're going to hear things that aren't factual. So until you have that paper in front of you, until you hear it come out of our leadership's mouths, wait and see, because it's very important that you know all of the information when it comes to bargaining."
He says he's elated with the tentative agreement.
"We want to make sure we covered absolutely everybody, from the new hires to the retirees, to the retired workers, to the people that have the opportunity to retire in the near future. So, we wanted to make sure that everybody in this agreement was affected and I believe we did so."
D'Agnolo says that a ratification vote at all Ford units will be taking place at their respective locations on Saturday, September 23.
He says times will be shared in the coming days.
The new tentative agreement covers members of Unifor Locals 707, 200, 584, 1087, 240 and 1324 at Ford's Oakville Assembly Plant, Annex and Essex Engine Plants in Windsor, Ontario in addition to Parts Distribution Centres in Bramalea, Paris and Casselman in Ontario and Leduc, Alberta.
Unifor represents 978 workers at the Annex Engine Plant which produces the 6.8-litre and 7.3-litre engines for use in the F-Series of pick-up trucks. There are 756 workers at the Essex Engine Plant which produces the 5.0L V8 engine.