Canadian auto union reaches deal with Stellantis after brief labor strike

DETROIT — Canadian union Unifor and Stellantis have reached a tentative agreement early Monday morning, ending a brief strike that began after a deal wasn’t reached by 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

The Canadian work stoppage involved more than 8,200 autoworkers at several facilities in the Canadian province of Ontario, including two large assembly plants that produce the Chrysler 300 sedan and Pacifica minivan and the Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars.

The strike and tentative agreement, which must still be ratified by union members, occurred two days after Stellantis reached a deal for about 43,000 U.S. autoworkers with the UAW after roughly six weeks of targeted strikes that began Sept. 16.

Details of the tentative agreement with Stellantis were not immediately available.

The Canadian work stoppage comes nearly three weeks after Unifor launched a roughly 12-hour national strike against General Motors after the sides failed to reach a tentative agreement by a union-set deadline.

Unifor, which represents 18,000 Canadian workers at the Detroit automakers, took a more traditional approach to its negotiations than its U.S. counterpart. The Canadian union is negotiating with each automaker separately and using a deal first reached last month with Ford as a pattern for GM and Stellantis.

That traditional patterned-bargaining approach runs counter to the UAW’s new strategy of bargaining with all three automakers at once.

The UAW has been gradually increasing the strikes since the work stoppages began after the sides failed to reach tentative agreements by Sept. 14. The targeted, or “stand-up,” strikes are taking place instead of national walkouts.

However, once the UAW reached a tentative agreement, which must still be ratified by members, Wednesday with Ford Motor, it has used that deal as a template for proposals with Stellantis and GM.