Contract talks between the Detroit Three and Unifor don’t gear up till late summer season, however opening salvos have already seemingly been fired.

At CES in Las Vegas in early January, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares mentioned the automaker is grappling with larger inflation on prime of the price of electrifying its lineup.

“Wherever you introduce expertise that’s 40 per cent costlier than the earlier one, it is advisable work exhausting in enhancing what you are promoting mannequin by way of mounted and variable prices,” he mentioned.

“If the common transaction value will increase due to the EV sales-mix improve, then you’ve got threat that the whole market shrinks.”

If gross sales sink, “We don’t want so many crops. Some unpopular choices should be made,” Tavares mentioned.

A couple of weeks later in Windsor, Ont., Mark Stewart, COO of Stellantis’ North American operations, mentioned automobile affordability is an enormous problem.

“We’re all very involved about affordability of autos for our prospects,” Stewart mentioned in an interview Jan. 17 on the automaker’s minivan meeting plant.

Because it develops EV applied sciences, Stellantis is working with its unions and provide base to decrease manufacturing prices, he mentioned.

“As a result of the very last thing that we’d like are to have this nice lineup of merchandise that nobody can afford.”

Unifor Nationwide President Lana Payne mentioned she’s not spoiling for a combat. However cost-of-living changes and income-security protections, resembling pensions, are prone to be among the many prime points for the greater than 22,000 hourly staff at Detroit Three meeting and powertrain crops in Canada.

“[Workers] need to make certain they’re not falling behind, so I think you’re going to see these sorts of very fundamental financial points being a few of the priorities that we’re going to see at bargaining in August,” Payne mentioned.

Unifor can be coordinating its efforts with its UAW counterparts — the primary time for the reason that Canadian union launched in 2013 that the 2 labour organizations can be negotiating contracts in the identical yr.

The talks can be held in opposition to the backdrop of Detroit Three guarantees to spend billions on retooling Canadian crops to assemble EVs. Whereas these investments sign a promising future for Canada’s auto manufacturing footprint, each union and administration are navigating an industrial panorama within the throes of revolutionary change.

And 2023 bargaining may assist decide how nicely automakers and their workers handle this once-in-a-century transformation.