Unifor, Ford agree to extend talks past strike deadline

The union representing thousands of autoworkers in Canada says a strike deadline for Ford workers that passed at midnight will be extended another 24 hours as the union considers a new offer.

"The union received a substantive offer from the employer minutes before the deadline and bargaining is continuing throughout the night," the union said in a statement issued at around 1:40 a.m. ET Tuesday.

"Unifor members should continue to maintain strike readiness."

Earlier on Monday night, Unifor's leader said Ford workers will go on strike if a deal was not reached by 11:59 p.m. ET.

At around 7.30 p.m. ET, Unifor National President Lana Payne said some progress had been made but the union wanted to see more on pensions and wages.

"If there is a strike this will be a total strike," Payne said. "Every single one of Unifor's 5,600 members at Ford in Canada will be on picket lines," she said.

Payne said that a lot can happen in the final hours, but "we know where we stand here and we are not wavering from our core priorities, especially pension improvements."

In a statement following the extension of negotiations, Ford Canada's vice president of human resources, Steven Majer, said the company would "continue to work collaboratively with Unifor to create a blueprint for the automotive industry that supports a vibrant and sustainable future in Canada."

Ford's biggest Canadian workforce is Oakville, Ont., in the Greater Toronto Area, where the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs are made, and in the Windsor region of southwestern Ontario, where it has two engine plants.

The plants build engines for F-series trucks and one manufactures the Ford Mustang engine.

The company also has a small presence in Leduc, Alta., as well as Casselman, Paris and Bramalea, Ont.

"Ours is a small but highly consequential footprint for Ford operations in North America," Payne said. "And this is our leverage and we will use it."

If a strike is called, those Unifor members would join 13,000 autoworkers who went on strike after the United Auto Workers union (UAW) could not reach a deal with the Detroit Three last week.

The union has extended its contracts covering 14,000 autoworkers employed by Stellantis (parent company of Chrysler) and General Motors as it continues bargaining with Ford.