A tentative agreement has been ratified at a local Aerospace manufacturing facility.
Employees at Northstar Aerospace voted 71 per cent in favour of a three-year contract on Friday.
This comes after workers were set to walk off the job earlier this week when the tentative deal was reached.
The deal includes improvements to wages, increases to pension, increased vacation time, bonuses, and more.
Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart says given the economic climate the members were happy.
“We’re living in a time where trade and tariffs on things that are used in these facilities for steel, aluminum, it drives costs high so bargaining isn’t easy. It’s tough. And trying to move the needle forward for members and have them recognize it is important.”
He says the agreement saw a number of gains.
“Overall improvements to wages - 12 per cent there. We had increases to the pension percentage. Everyone got more vacation time, more time off the job. We had improvements to our bereavement language, we had improvements to our bonus language and members are going to get bonuses over the next two years.”
Stewart adds that Northstar has been fully acquired by GE Aerospace who is a standalone, publicly traded aviation giant.
He says that played a key role in
“Part of our bargaining was establishing all the new GE pension, benefits, all the plans that they’re going to incorporate across Canada, not just in this workplace but right across their Canadian operations in terms of benefits, etc.”
Northstar Aerospace manufactures complex, flight-critical precision components for both defense and commercial aviation.
The union represents approximately 50 employees at Northstar.
The agreement will be in place from June 1, 2026, until June 1, 2029.