Ford barrels toward new Canadian strike that could affect F-Series pickup production

DETROIT – Ford Motor‘s labor troubles could grow to be a global difficulty that impacts U.S. production of some pickup vehicles, as Canadian union Unifor and the corporate have solely hours to succeed in an settlement for roughly 5,600 autoworkers.

The sides have to succeed in a deal earlier than an prolonged 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline to keep away from a possible strike. The preliminary deadline for the talks was Monday night time, however the sides introduced a 24-hour extension after the union acquired a “substantive supply” from Ford “minutes earlier than the deadline.”

The potential Canadian work stoppage provides to strain going through Ford days after the United Auto Workers called for targeted strikes in opposition to Ford and its crosstown rivals, General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.

A Unifor strike would disrupt Ford’s Oakville Assembly Plant that produces the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers. It would additionally affect two engine vegetation that produce 7.3-liter and 5.0-liter V8 gasoline engines utilized in extremely worthwhile merchandise such because the Ford F-Series Super Duty and F-150 pickups and Mustang muscle automobile.

If Unifor strikes in opposition to Ford, it could be the primary time each unions have concurrently gone on strike in opposition to a Detroit automaker over nationwide contracts – marking one other unprecedented labor transfer after the UAW struck all three of the Detroit automakers final week for the primary time.

“Ford does not need a strike anyplace. Having the additional strain of Unifor is pushing Ford very exhausting to get a deal,” stated Art Wheaton, a labor professor at the Worker Institute at Cornell University.

Unifor, whose auto members had been a part of the UAW till a break up within the mid-Eighties, confirmed talks are ongoing after they continued previous the deadline into Tuesday morning.

“We will proceed to work collaboratively with Unifor to create a blueprint for the automotive business that helps a vibrant and sustainable future in Canada,” Ford said in a statement in regards to the talks early Tuesday.

Unifor, which represents 18,000 Canadian staff on the Detroit automakers, took a extra conventional strategy to its negotiations than its U.S. counterpart did. The Canadian union picked Ford as its “goal” firm as a substitute of following the UAW’s new strategy of bargaining with all three automakers. It additionally introduced a conventional nationwide strike, if wanted, as a substitute of focused ones.

Hours earlier than the preliminary deadline, Unifor National President Lana Payne said the union and Ford had been “not the place we must be on key precedence points,” together with wages and pensions. She famous the final time Canadian automakers went on strike was in 1990.

“We want Ford to ship extra to satisfy our members’ expectations and calls for, it is so simple as that,” she stated.

Payne stated the union has been monitoring the UAW negotiation, and he or she has been “in contact” with the American union, together with on Monday with UAW President Shawn Fain. The UAW and Unifor confirmed solidarity heading as much as the talks and have continued to publicly help each other.

Spokespeople with Ford and Unifor declined to touch upon particulars of the corporate’s proposal that brought about the union to comply with extending the deadline.

Extending contract deadlines is traditionally widespread throughout automotive collective bargaining. However, Fain declined to take action. He additionally unconventionally set a second deadline of midday Friday to announce extra strikes if “severe progress” is not made within the talks by then.

“The automakers for many years have used whipsawing the place they’re making an attempt to pit the U.S. in opposition to Canada … Shawn Fain flipped the tables on them and is utilizing the identical or comparable technique to induce the bargaining,” Wheaton stated.

If the Unifor strikes do not impression F-Series production, expanded UAW strikes could accomplish that, beginning Friday. Barclays analyst Dan Levy stated Tuesday that “massive pickup vegetation could be focused” subsequent by the UAW in its stike in opposition to the Detroit automakers, also referred to as D3.

“As a reminder, massive pickups are the revenue engines for the D3,” he wrote in an investor notice, noting every has strong inventories of the automobiles.

Cox Automotive reviews days-supply of Ford’s F-Series pickups was at 87 days to begin September, together with 64 for the bigger Super Duty vehicles; GM was at 79 days for the Chevrolet Silverado and 70 days for GMC Sierra; and Stellantis’ Ram was at 119 days.

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.