REFILE-WRAPUP 1-CAW reaches deal with GM, close at Chrysler

(Refiles to fix spelling of WRAPUP in headline)

By John McCrank

TORONTO, May 15 (Reuters) - The Canadian Auto Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) of Canada and an agreement in principle on a new deal with Chrysler [CBS.UL] Canada, CAW President Buzz Hargrove said on Thursday.

"Overall, this is a good agreement that keeps alive as many jobs as we could," Hargrove said of the GM deal.

He said the three-year agreement mainly follows the same pattern as the deal ratified with Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on May 4. See Factbox for details: [ID:nN14493937]. The deal freezes wages for three years but includes some cost-of-living increases in the second and third years for the roughly 13,000 GM workers represented by the CAW at several Ontario plants.

Hargrove said the agreement seeks to protect workers affected by GM plant shutdowns. GM announced on Monday it plans to shut its Windsor, Ontario, transmission plant.

"We put together what I call a groundbreaking closeout agreement for our members in Windsor, where 1,300 CAW members will lose their jobs in the second quarter of 2010," he said.

"We got retirement incentives, we got buyouts, we got a grow-in, pro-rated pensions, all of the things you can do to protect people who are caught through no fault of their own in what's a tragedy happening to our industry in Canada."

The deal also gives a reprieve to 900 workers set to be laid off at GM's Oshawa, Ontario, truck plant in September of this year.