Achi news desk-
Montreal –
Canadian Airbus A220 assembly workers approved a five-year contract with more than three-quarters of the vote in favor, their union said late Wednesday, ending fears of a lockout at the planemaker’s Montreal-area plant.
The approval of the deal came after the company’s estimated 1,300 A220 workers in the Montreal area represented by the International Union of Mechanics and Aerospace Workers (IAM) agreed to a compromise following the rejection of two previous offers and a tentative agreement with union leaders. Rejected by friends.
The workers, whose last contract ended in December 2023, will receive a 23% pay increase over five years, improvements in access to group insurance and increased nightly premiums that will encourage working later shifts.
The union also tried to make gains in work-life balance, with some workers unsuccessfully pushing for a four-day week for afternoon shift workers.
The agreement prevented a work disruption that could lead to delays in deliveries to the airlines. Pace at the Quebec province’s labor office said Airbus would “exercise its right to a lockout on May 2” if a contract is not reached by that date.
The Canadian unit of the European plane maker is trying to increase production and control costs for the loss-making narrow-body plane, which is smaller than the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX.
Airbus said the agreement would allow for better shift balance and knowledge transfer between more experienced workers who typically work day shifts and those with less seniority and often work later shifts.
“This situation is essential as the production rate of the A220 is increasing,” Airbus said in a statement.
Unions have recently taken advantage of tight labor markets and high inflation to win hefty contracts at the bargaining table across North America, with airline pilots, auto workers and others securing big raises in 2023.
The Airbus talks in Canada have been closely watched by IAM leaders in Washington state, where Boeing manufacturing workers want wage increases of more than 40 percent over three to four years.
(Reporting by Alison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Mark Potter and Jamie Freed)
