Despite resisting contract recessions previously, the Canadian Auto Workers union announced yesterday that it would begin new negotiations with car makers. The sudden change came when the Canadian government offered to bailout out the Canadian arms of Detroit automakers, but only if the wages of their workers matched those of workers at Honda and Toyota. While the union president, Ken Lewenza, maintains that labor costs neither caused nor will solve the current crisis, he admitted that the union can no longer ignore the dire financial state of automakers. The government bailout offer expires on February 20th.
See "Canadian Auto Workers to Reopen Talks", Ian Austen, The New York Times, January 29, 2009