Unifor eyes ‘first unionized battery plant in Canada’
Canada’s largest private-sector union is pushing to organize hourly employees at electric-vehicle battery factories across Ontario.
Unifor President Lana Payne said talks are under way between the union and NextStar Energy, a Windsor, Ont., EV battery venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions.
The $5-billion plant, announced in 2022, is expected to employ 2,500 people at capacity. Most will be hourly employees. About 450 people have been hired, including 230 hourly employees, the company told Automotive News Canada. Battery output and employment will be determined by market demand.
“This will be the first unionized battery plant in Canada,” Payne said on the Automotive News Canada Podcast.
Former Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy said before 2023 bargaining with Stellantis that the battery plant should be included in the three-year contract, which was eventually ratified in October 2023.
Unifor said its 320,000-member union includes nearly 22,000 autoworkers at Detroit Three automakers and another 16,000 at auto suppliers.
The hourly wage Unifor is looking for at the NextStar plant is not known, but supplier contracts typically pay less than jobs in vehicle assembly. For the most recent contract, new Stellantis hires make about $29 per hour. Meanwhile, employees at a Tier 1 supplier recently organized by Unifor earned a 16-per-cent raise on their roughly $23 per hour during the term of the first three-year contract.
Unifor-Stellantis contract different
Payne said, however, it’s the opinion of Stellantis that the current contract “doesn’t cover” NextStar workers.
“It has always been our position … that our bargaining rights extend to any new Stellantis plant, including the battery plant, even though it’s a joint venture,” she said.
Unifor has been speaking with NextStar management and holding informational sessions for potential members. Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart said there have been “in-depth conversations with the company.
“Now we’re proceeding into working on the details of a collective agreement,” he said.
Stewart said battery plants present new challenges. They are new to North America, the companies are newly formed and in many cases they are joint ventures that include companies that aren’t traditionally unionized.
“Really, it’s about the uniqueness of the type of work they do,” he said. “We are really looking at every aspect we can.”
The Windsor plant will have capacity to produce 49.5 gigawatt-hours of battery cells and modules per year, enough to power about 450,000 EVs. It will supply Stellantis assembly plants in Canada and the United States. Battery module output began in the fall.
Beyond confirming that it “has entered into exploratory discussions with Unifor,” NextStar declined to comment on negotiations.
“We’re just in the beginning stages. There’s a lot of work left to do,” Unifor’s Payne said.
Because it would be the first collective agreement between the union and NextStar, there is no deadline for completing negotiations. Stewart said he would like an agreement as soon as possible, but said that could take weeks or months.
PowerCo is on Unifor’s radar
Unifor also has its eyes on an EV battery plant in St. Thomas, Ont., about 175 kilometres northeast of Windsor.
PowerCo, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, is building a $7-billion plant there. The company said it will employ up to 3,000 people, many of them hourly employees.
“I think it’s pretty clear that we will be doing everything we can to make sure the workers hired by Volkswagen will have an opportunity to become Unifor members. That is a priority of ours,” Payne said.
PowerCo is waiting to comment on potential unionization at the plant.
“We are committed to being a reliable partner for the people of St. Thomas, Ontario, and Canada. This includes fostering economic growth and training opportunities through local partnerships … great working conditions for our employees, and thousands more indirect jobs in the region,” the company said in a statement. “We recognize there is a high degree of interest in our project, but as we are currently in the construction phase, we would respectfully decline further comment at this time.”
UAW leads the way
Unifor’s efforts to organize battery plants follows the success of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the United States.
The UAW will represent workers at a General Motors joint-venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Spring Hill, Tenn. A majority of the 1,000 workers at the Ultium Cells facility signed cards in September in favour of unionizing, and the company did not interfere with the organizing drive. The plant produces battery cells for GM’s electric vehicles.
Unifor has been aggressively organizing the automotive supply chain in Ontario. For example, after several failed attempts, Unifor in April 2024 organized 800 workers at Tier 1 supplier F & P Manufacturing in Tottenham. Those workers ratified their first collective agreement — with 94 per cent voting in favour — on Jan. 22
“The auto parts industry is vitally important to Ontario’s economy, and auto parts workers continue to see the benefits of unionization every single day,” Payne said.
— With files from Automotive News
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