GM Makes New Offer to Canadian Union

General Motors Corp.’s latest contract offer to the Canadian Auto Workers union moves talks “toward a settlement as opposed to a strike,” CAW President Buzz Hargrove said ahead of a Tuesday deadline.

The car maker submitted a proposed contract Sunday that removes lump-sum pay boosts in favor of percentage gains and eliminates an earlier proposal to reduce cost-of-living increases, Hargrove said at a news conference.

GM initially proposed a 3% raise for the union’s 18,700 CAW members in the first year of a new contract, followed by lump-sum payments in the second and third years, Hargrove said. With such payments, hourly wage rates don’t rise, something the union opposed.

The union’s contracts with Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler also expire Tuesday. The union chose GM as the so-called target auto maker to be the focus of negotiations, and only GM faces a Tuesday strike deadline. After reaching an agreement with GM, the union will try to adapt that contract to Ford and Chrysler.