Both General Motors and Unifor members employed by GM want the current strike to be over sooner rather than later. Workers are feeling the pressure, and GM is losing out on the precious supply of the hot-selling 2018 Chevrolet Equinox every single day—872 units, to be precise.
Therefore, Unifor has come forth and sent a formal invitation to GM to begin renegotiating a new labor contract, but it came with a catch: make the CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, the lead Chevrolet Equinox production facility.
It’s a major catch, but union leaders say it’s necessary to ensure the plant’s future. GM builds the 2018 Equinox at two supplementary locations in Mexico, but they’re not fully online.
“They have to understand the issues remain the same. We need a job security document, a lead plant letter,” Dan Borthwick, president of Unifor Local 88 told Automotive News.
The effects of the strike could turn sour for GM employees at the St. Catharines transmission plant, too. GM said it will have no choice but to idle the plant and temporarily lay off workers if the automaker and Unifor don’t reach a deal by September 25, 2017. However, Unifor leadership isn’t phased by the potential layoffs and sent a letter to Unifor 88 at the CAMI plant pledging their full support.
“On behalf of our GM membership at Unifor Locals 222, 199 and 636, please know you have our complete support as your members are forced onto the picket lines following General Motors’ failure to bargain a new contract,” read the letter. “We are more than aware of General Motors’ tactics when it comes to their disregard for our job security.”
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And the Canadian automotive industry will continue to decline at an even faster rate due to the union hubris…Threats and extortion will only hurt Canada more as companies can choose much better alternatives anywhere in the world. They wanted “globalism” and now they got it. Karma.
Sounds like the two Mexico plants will be online sooner than planned and CAMI will be left out in the cold.
They’ll strike themselves right out of a job.
Karl Marx would tell the Canadian Union that they are wrong. Marx’s greater goal was international unionism, not one union fighting another simply because of national borders created by the rich. Canada’s border and Mexico’s border were both decided by Andrew Jackson and his extremely rich friends from 1810ish-1850ish. Simultaneously he drove Native Americans out. Marx knew this entire story, and it informed much of his theorizing.
In WW1, all the then-new unions held conferences as Marx had asked for if a war broke out. He asked them to vote to strike against the war to prevent union brothers from killing each other across borders. What happened? Every single union voted on national lines to kill their brothers over the borders. Marx was long dead by then, but all the union historians were appalled.
And now it happens again. “We Canadians deserve to have those Mexican jobs, and our bosses better give them to us or we won’t work!” Hahahahaha. Go on then, don’t work.
And Marx gets proven right again. He was correct that Lenin and then Stalin would fail because they treated communism like a religion, which Marx specifically warned against. He was correct that Keynes would be mostly right, but needed more effort to control stagflation, and Marx was again correct about Friedman, once again because of the religiosity of NeoLiberalism. The perfect example of NeoLiberal religiosity? Hillary:”If you don’t vote for me because you don’t like my love-the-banks attitude, you must be misogynist”. Yeah – so that made Elizabeth Warren misogynist, then.
Canadians! Strike against exploitation. If you strike against Mexico, you truly fulfill Marx’s quip that “the rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.” And Lenin and Stalin sure were rich. And Canada ain’t a religion, and neither is Mexico.
The Canadian Union Unifor must feel they’re in a race with the devil because their leverage disappears once the two facilities in Mexico become operational, General Motors probably has personnel working triple shifts to get the plants in Mexico fully operational; GM CEO Mary Barra needs to show her steel and play HARDBALL with the Canadians because trying to end the strike too quickly by giving in to Unifor’s demands could hurt General Motors for years while possible inventory shortages will hurt just weeks.
Cami is being left out of GM future plans due to a variety of factors – soaring electricity prices, carbon taxes, environmental regulations. They lost the Terrain, now they’re fighting to keep the Equinox, and to stay relevant in a global marketplace. I’m betting the government’s of Canada and Ontario were not so hasty in selling their shares in “Government Motors”
Who is responsible for the higher electricity prices? Who created the Car on Taxes? Who passed the environmental regulations with no consideration to economic impact?
A big hint it was not GM.
The key to the future I’d business and goverment to work together and not drive up cost and drive companies out whilebeing responsible.
Kathleen Wynne is a joke. She is a social justice warrior who is now Premier. She worships political correctness/carbon taxes/big government. CAMI is a great plant, but have a boat anchor government.
The union promise of a better life on the assembly line only goes so far till it becomes a big lie. Just look at the prices now on many product due to very high labor cost. Those cost come back to all of us in higher prices.
If you want to get rich it is not going to be due to working a basic labor job for someone else.
The opportunities are their for those who are willing to take the time and invest in themselves. Be it working to build your own business or like I did work full time while I paid for my own education.
Nothing is given everything is earned.
Canada is a perfect example were social programs and thinking have just driven up the cost of living and not really advance many outside of politics.
Don’t believe this just look at the cost of living or the cost of a home in Canada vs most other places. It has become the land of the million dollar home that would only cost 1/4 most other places.
It is a competitive global work market and people need to learn again how to compete.
The sad fact in all of this is the Union at the CAMI plant has gotten their whole workforce in a heap of trouble just to save their own skins . In the enviroment of global production , GM is looking to produce their cars where they are going to make the most profit . And by asking GM to make the CAMI plant the ” plant leader ” for the Equinox when you have lost half of your employees due to loss of a new product ( the Terrain ) that is the twin of what you are left with doesn’t look good for the future viability for the plant . It is going to be cheaper for GM to run their two facilities in Mexico at full capacity , and have only to ship parts to those two .
We’ve seen this type of hardball negotiations from the old CAW now UNIFOR and it tends to ruin the relationship and it’s the workers who pay .
Just maybe the Union bosses at CAMI should be straight with their brothers and sisters and tell them the truth that their plant may stay open but just for the over-flow ” if needed ” and hope that demand for the Equinox is such that the second shift will be hired back .
What they need to look at is how much money was spent at the two facilities in Mexico versus Cami for the new product and that will shine a light on which way this turns out . Also the age of the workforce and assembly plants make a huge difference .
GM doesn’t look at the number ” of people ” but consider them by ” Social Security Numbers ” when it comes to laying off people .
I hope it works out for CAMI .
I work there. You know who is to blame? The stupid union officials who convinced the entitlement driven, non skilled workers that they should be asking for more money, cost of living increases and other economic requests, not to mention the stupidest demand of all… A demand on paper that they will have a secure job for x amount of years! I mean seriously GM employees, do you guys even think for yourselves with out Van bokel and dias telling you what to think? I don’t care how much money GM makes here in Canada either, they are in business to make money and you should be proud that you have a gravy job making over 30 dollars an hour. Oh yes I said gravy, what would you call a job where you come outside every hour to have smoke breaks, or just take a 10 minute walk around the plant if your a non smoker. I see it every day, its true. you guys are gonna stike yourselves out of a job forever{ mexico as of yesterday is now producing your cami vehicle at 2 plants} Good job Unifor. If you workers don’t stand up for yourselves and just go to work every day like the majority of Canadians and be happy to have a job and quit asking for more more more you would fair much better. Provincial and federal gov have done there share to fuk this up too, as they deliberately push automakers out with carbon taxes, insane energy prices. this entitlement generation that thinks they should have the RIGHT to a 4 year contract or the RIGHT to a COLA increase or the RIGHT to anything other than to be able to work in Canada and earn a fair wage for THE SKILL you bring to the job!, which in most cases is a grade 12 diploma. Don’t throw the typical union comment about being able to afford to buy the product you make for your company either. Do you think the Italians who work for Ferrari buy Ferrari’s? You guys can only blame Mexico,GM,Government so much but eventually it will be the face in your mirror that ends up being the cause for GM leaving. And if by some slight of hand GM stays, you can be sure it will be because Unifor and you guys selling the next generation { if any }of autoworkers down the road to make less than you guys now, like you did last contract to the SWE workers. remember? I hope GM stays, but you guys mad a big mistake stiking in a global market.