CAW, CAMI Reach Tentative Agreement

The Canadian Auto Workers and CAMI, the joint venture operated by GM and Suzuki in Canada, have reached a tentative agreement yesterday, whose passing will be voted upon by the 2,250 CAW members today. The agreement is, as CAW President Ken Lewenza told Autonews, the “commitment to a manufacturing footprint for the CAMI facility,” by the two carmakers.

Still, no details on the provisions of the tentative agreement have been released. The CAW says it will do so after today’s vote; the only thing they mentioned was the fact that the agreement will come into effect only in September 2010.

"This year has been extremely difficult and we hope this new agreement will create greater security for CAMI workers,” Mike Van Boekel, the CAW's chair for the CAMI plant, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.

CAMI is currently being used to build Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain for GM, which also plans to add an extra third shift at the plant in October. Suzuki’s side of the joint venture was discontinued in May, amids the severe drop in sales the Japanese carmaker experienced.

In late July, Suzuki stated that despite the idling, it will not pull out of the joint venture. "The market has been terrible," Gene Brown, American Suzuki's vice president of marketing said. "But that doesn't mean we're going to withdraw from the venture." Still, there is no word on when Suzuki’s side of the operation will resume production.

The results of the vote on the tentative agreement will be announced later today.