Canadian Industrialist Urges Workers to Join Union

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/business/16union.html?ref=business

By IAN AUSTEN
Published: October 16, 2007

OTTAWA, Oct. 15 — Frank Stronach, the founder and chairman of the auto parts maker Magna International, urged his 18,000 hourly employees in Canada on Monday to join the Canadian Auto Workers.

Mr. Stronach’s endorsement followed two years of talks that concluded Monday with a formal agreement on how the union would organize the company’s employees. Under its terms, the C.A.W., Canada’s most prominent union, agreed that Magna’s workers would not strike and the company, in turn, waived its right to lock out employees.

The unusual agreement developed from an unsolicited approach Mr. Stronach made to the union’s president, Basil E. Hargrove, in October 2005.

Since its founding 50 years ago, Magna was rarely viewed as a friend of organized labor. Only 3 of Magna’s 43 Canadian plants are unionized.

But Mr. Stronach is also something of a business philosopher who has decorated the lobby of his company’s head office in Aurora, Ontario, with a stone carving of his thoughts about fairness, profit-sharing, employee stock ownership and the corporation’s role in the community.

“We never said over the years that we should not be unionized,” Mr. Stronach said at a televised news conference from Magna’s headquarters. “I have said that I disagree with the philosophy of unions.”

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