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The Canadian Auto Workers have approved a new three-year contract with Ford Motor Company avoiding a two-tier wage structure. Jesse Russell reports:

The new contract negotiated between the workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company avoids the two-tier wage model agreed on last year by the United Auto Workers. Under the two-tier structure, new hires wouldn't benefit from the same pay rates as senior workers. Instead, the Canadian workers gave up a week of vacation and agreed to a wage freeze. The CAW now moves on to negotiations with Chrysler and then GM. The CAW hopes to use the Ford contract as a model for negotiations with those two companies.

The UAW in the U.S. has gone on a local strike, shutting down a Fairfax, Kansas GM plant.