General Motors and Chrysler were still at the bargaining table Wednesday with the Canadian Auto Workers Union, and analysts believe the union will be victorious in achieving similar deals to the one inked with Ford.
CAW President Ken Lewenza said he's optimistic the union will be able to reach agreements with GM Canada and Chrysler. On Tuesday night, he said there has been more progress at the table with GM.
"There are still a number of challenging issues to work through," Lewenza said. "We're not there yet, but as long as we keep making progress at the bargaining table, we will continue to negotiate."
Chrysler would only say that talks are ongoing and had no further comment.
Canadian Ford auto workers will vote this weekend on the tentative agreement that was reached on Monday, which the union hopes to use as a framework for an agreement with the others.
The auto workers union is usually insistent that the first collective agreement reached be followed by the others in a system called "pattern bargaining," designed to prevent one automaker from being disadvantaged by a less competitive deal than the others achieved.
"On anything core at all, the CAW will not accept any deviation from the pattern by the Ford deal," said Tony Faria, marketing professor at the University of Windsor. "I think you can declare a winner and the winner in this contract is the CAW. They essentially gave up nothing."
The Ford deal contains no base wage increases and pension plans will remain the same for existing employees.
