In a first, Unifor, previously the Canadian Auto Workers union, will be headed by a former journalist with seemingly little direct experience in the automotive industry as the union heads into negotiations with Detroit’s carmakers in the summer of 2023.

Lana Payne was selected as the new National President of Unifor, the first woman to hold the position during Unifor’s Constitutional Convention. “Today, we turn a page. Today, we move forward. Today and every day, we put our members at the heart of everything we do,” said Payne after her win was announced.

Payne was previously National Secretary-Treasurer of Unifor, and was the first woman to hold that position, as well. She defeated Executive Assistant to the President Scott Doherty and Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy.

“I want to thank Scott and his team and Dave for showing our union that we can have a conversation about the future of our union,” said Payne, whose predecessors Jerry Dias, Buzz Hargrove and Bob White all worked in auto industry and had considerable experience dealing with the automakers before their elevation of the presidency.

Payne took over as acting Unifor president in March after her predecessor, Jerry Dias, announced his retirement amid a probe into his possible misconduct. The probe is continuing.

Six contracts set to expire at once

Dias, who was instrumental in changing the union changing its name from the Canadian Auto Workers to Unifor, negotiated agreements with Detroit’s three carmakers in 2016 and 2020 that will expire in September 2023 at the same time as the United Auto Workers contracts with Ford, GM and Stellantis.

At time of the settlements in 2020, Dias hinted at the possibility of coordination with the UAW.

However, the UAW, which is still reeling from a scandal involving bribery and payoff to UAW officials, is in the midst of the union’s first-ever, direct election of top officers in which every member will have a chance to cast a vote for top officers. The union recently completed selecting nominees for those spots at its constitutional convention.

Ballots go out this fall, according to rules set down by the court-appointed monitor responsible for policing the UAW’s internal politics. But may not be counted until early December. If no candidate captures 50% of the votes there will be a runoff, which may not be decided until next March.

Complicated negotiations next year

Union members in both Canada and the United States are certain to press for substantial pay increases, cost-of-living protection from inflation, elimination of tiered pay structures and the restoration of traditional benefits, such as pensions. Health care is less of an issue in Canada, because of the country’s universal health-care system.

In addition, both unions will be pressing to secure a stake in the emerging electric vehicle segment, where the role of labor is undergoing rapid change.

Payne, who comes from Newfoundland and Labrador where she began a career as newspaper reporter before becoming a union activist, seems unlikely to delegate responsibility for the auto contracts, though local Unifor officers from the Canadian auto belt stretching from Windsor, Ontario to Toronto will have major roles in the upcoming negotiations.

With the fate of one of Stellantis’ assembly plants in Ontario and the potential location of Ford and GM battery plants on the line, cross-border cooperation could be strained since the negotiators from Detroit’s automakers are certain to play one union against the other in effort to squeeze out concessions.

Earlier this month, Unifor also released a report on the future of the electric vehicle industry, calling on the Canadian government to develop a comprehensive industrial policy to support EVs and the EV supply chain.

Partnership may be tough

But coordination with the UAW could prove difficult. For one thing mistrust of the UAW’s leadership runs deep among union members in the wake of the scandal, which sent 12 UAW officials, including two past presidents, Dennis Williams and Gary Jones, to prison after they pleaded guilty to federal crimes. 

During the recent constitutional convention, speaker after speaker denounced the union leaders presiding over the event in Detroit. In addition, current UAW President Ray Curry’s critics inside the union say he has done little or nothing to prepare a strategy for dealing with the industry’s turn towards EVs. 

Curry is running for reelection and is currently favored to win given the inherent power of incumbency, though the campaign is just getting started. However, the perception of the strategy employed during recent fights over the union’s labor pacts with Volvo Trucks and John Deere, even if he wins, Curry will not have the kind of authority his predecessors once wielded in contract negotiations.

Unifor and the UAW did cooperate successfully in a push to fortify the labor provisions of the new U.S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement in 2020. 

However, the Unifor was founded when a rift in the early 1980s between the U.S. and Canadian sections led to the Canadian Auto Workers seceding from the UAW and its leadership in Detroit. The rift was exacerbated when CAW chief Bob White allowed a Canadian film crew to record one of his conversations with then-UAW President Owen Bieber, who died in 2020, for a documentary.

Since then, the Canadian union has been considered more militant than its American counterpart, having sit down strikes and other tactics shelved by the UAW, and have expanded to become the largest private sector union in Canada.