While master agreements brought a new strength and effectiveness to UAW efforts, the coordination of those efforts required a centralization of power. As power was consolidated at UAW headquarters in Detroit, the autonomy and input of Canadian locals in contractual negotiations was diminished. Ironically, as the economic structure of the American and Canadian auto industries became more closely linked by the Auto Pact of 1965 and efforts to establish Free Trade, the goals and attitudes of the American and Canadian segments of the UAW diverged.

That divergence became most evident during the economic crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s when first Chrysler and then Ford and General Motors sought concessions during bargaining talks. Chrysler workers reluctantly agreed to give up their Cost of Living Allowance, but thereafter, the Canadian branch of the UAW refused to make any concessions, even those already made by their American counterparts. By 1982, Chrysler workers were clamouring for the reinstatement of their Cost of Living Allowance, and after an especially bitter and violent action in autumn of that same year they achieved an acceptable wage increase. In 1984, workers from Local 1973, which had split from Local 195 eleven years earlier, along with all other General Motors workers in Canada defied orders from Detroit and struck successfully to get a better contract than workers at General Motors in the United States. On the fiftieth anniversary of the UAW in 1985, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) held its founding convention in Toronto.

A different nationalism, as well as a different political and social climate infused Canadian auto workers with a militancy unseen in America. Canadian workers were successful in rebuffing company demands for concessions, in part, because a less conservative political environment in Canada provided an atmosphere more condusive to aggressive union activity. The wage differential between auto workers and other labourers was also not as great in Canada as it was in the United States, which meant that Canadian auto workers gained more support from their fellow countrymen than did their American counterparts. Finally, because Canadian workers were employed by American-based multinational corporations, they did not feel obligated to make economic sacrifices in the name of nationalism.

The more adversarial stance of the CAW in labour-management relations has resulted in better contractual agreements for its membership with clauses such as restrictions on outsourcing and advanced notice of plant closures that do not exist in corresponding American contracts. The CAW, furthermore, has taken steps to ensure greater local autonomy through a network of consultative councils. Whereas the UAW bargaining agenda is set in Detroit, all such agendas are determined by the CAW only after consultation with local members. The CAW has attempted to address the issue of female and minority representation in its executive and supports social programs dealing with health and safety, drug abuse and domestic violence.