General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers resumed talks on a national contract yesterday as Canadian autoworkers overwhelmingly ratified a pact to end a three-week strike. The Canadian Auto Workers held eight meetings in Ontario and Quebec to explain the tentative agreement to its 26,300 GM workers. The deal, reached Tuesday, was approved by 89 percent of those voting. The final vote was 12,973 to 1,648. In Detroit, GM's talks with the UAW continued, but there was no word from either side on how close negotiators were to a settlement.
Analysts expect a deal within days now that the CAW contract has been ratified.
It doesn't sound like there's the threat of a strike right now. The UAW and CAW are independent unions, but have coordinated their strategy in this round of Big Three contract talks. While the strike against GM of Canada Ltd. was over, its effects were expected to keep rippling through the North American manufacturing operations of the world's largest automaker for at least another week. GM said the number of workers in the United States and Mexico laid off because of the strike fell slightly yesterday to 19,159. A total 1,830 parts workers, mostly in Mexico, returned to their jobs while 1,058 new layoffs occurred in Mexico, and Mansfield, Ohio, and Flint.