Unifor President Jerry Dias is pushing GM to commit to significant investments in its Oshawa, Ontario assembly complex.
General Motors and the union representing Canadian autoworkers appear headed for a show down this coming weekend over the fate of one of GM’s oldest assembly plants and future investments.
Unifor’s current contract with the Detroit Three expires 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19. Should a new agreement not be reached, Unifor members have voted overwhelmingly to give their bargaining committees authorization to call a strike.
The union has made investment in Canada a top priority in this round of negotiations, focusing its attention on GM’s aging plant in Oshawa, Ontario.
Jerry Dias, Unifor president, has said throughout the summer the negotiations are about the future of local communities, good jobs and the industry.” Our demand is clear, invest today to build a future for tomorrow,” Dias said recently.
GM employs 6,600 Unifor members at the Oshawa assembly plant, which as it stands could close in 2017, as well at an engine and transmission complex in St. Catharines. Of the 6,600 members, there are 2,600 working at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll who are not part of the Master Agreement. About 23,000 Unifor members work at all the Detroit Three companies.
With pattern bargaining, negotiations focus on one company to reach an agreement that sets a standard for the rest of the automakers in Canada. Once an agreement with the target company is ratified by members, focus in bargaining shifts to a second company and then the third.
GM has spared its plant in Oshawa, Ontario, from closure three times, but it's still slated to close in next year.
(Canadian auto workers pick GM as strike target. For more, Click Here.)
United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams told Reuters the UAW will support Canada’s unionized auto workers during contract talks with GM but declined to say whether the UAW would refuse to work at GM plants in the event of a Canadian strike.
Williams said in an interview he believes GM and Dias will “come to a conclusion that’s best for all parties” and hopes they can reach a new four-year contract without a strike.
Dias and Unifor have threatened the strike of about 4,000 workers at GM plants in Ontario unless a new four-year contract is reached by Sept. 19.
(Canadian auto workers authorize strike for talks with Detroit’s Big Three. Click Here for the story.)
A strike would have ripple effects at U.S. plants, particularly if Unifor workers walk off their jobs at an engine and transmission plant in St Catharines and could close as many as nine other GM assembly plants in North America, immediately raising the costs to GM.
Additionally, a strike would dramatize the shift by carmakers towards Mexican production. The companies have invested billions of dollars in Mexico in the past decade and clash over investment in Canada would only dramatize the shift.
(Canadian union leaders warn GM a strike is coming. Click Here for more.)
Earlier this week, the ongoing shift in production triggered another brawl between GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ford Motor Co. after Ford President Mark Fields reiterated that the company was moving small-car assembly operations to Mexico.