A highly profitable General Motors should share the wealth with the workers whose "sacrifices" helped the automaker boost its bottom line, Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, said Thursday.

"The restructuring has worked," Lewenza said. "I think workers are entitled to what they're getting paid and they should start making some recovery of the sacrifices we made."

Lewenza's comments followed the release of GM's first quarter results, showing the automaker posted a US$3.2 billion net profit during the first three months of the year more than triple its net income during the same period in 2010.

It also marked the Detroit automaker's fifth consecutive quarterly profit since it emerged from bankruptcy and accepted billions in U.S. and Canadian government loans in 2009.

During a conference call with financial analysts, GM CEO Dan Akerson stressed the need to contain costs, calling the upcoming round of negotiations with the United Auto Workers "critically important."

GM's contract with the CAW expires next fall.

Akerson said the UAW leadership shares the understanding that "we have a joint, invested interest in making this negotiation a plus, not a negative, at the worst a neutral. So, there's steely-eyed objectivity on both sides of the table and we're both pretty clear in what we need to accomplish ... this is critically important to both of us that we stay competitive with our competitors and not just our U.S. competitors, but the foreign transplants and that's a guiding principle in the kind of new realization for both parties."

Calls to UAW officials were not returned, however Lewenza said workers on both sides of the border are expecting to regain ground lost during concessionary contracts that were part of the automaker's restructuring.

"Even though General Motors is turning the corner, the experience of the pain of the job loss and the restructuring is still very much in our hearts and in our minds," he said.

"The UAW and the CAW know exactly what we need to do to maintain our competitive advantage but these corporations must still recognize that workers are entitled to be part of the success and that doesn't mean rolling back wages and benefits."

General Motors was the last of the Detroit Three to announced net income gains for the first quarter.

Ford Motor Co. last month posted a $2.6-billion profit while Chrysler announced Monday its first profitable quarter -$116 million -since emerging from bankruptcy two years ago.

FORD PLANT UP FOR SALE

The Ford plant in St. Thomas is on the selling block ahead of its expected closing later this year. The price tag for the 2.1million-square-foot factory is $22.75 million, with an adjacent 161-acre vacant parcel of land going for an extra $3.2 million. The plant, which assembles the police interceptor Crown Victoria, employs about 1,300. The sale makes the Sept. 16 closure a sad reality, said CAW president Ken Lewenza.

"When the company puts the For Sale sign up, it becomes a realization that this is real," said Lewenza. "Here's the Ford Motor Co. that's incredibly profitable, growing market share, yet they're going to be the smallest auto company in Canada. We've always believed Canada should get its fair share of production and I don't think we're getting our fair share of production, and the closure of the plant confirms that."