TORONTO, Sept 17 General Motors Co and the Canadian union Unifor have not yet made any significant progress in their talks to hammer out a new contract, the labor group’s President Jerry Dias said on Saturday as the sides entered the final stretch of negotiations.
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The union has picked a fight with GM in hopes of winning new product lines in Oshawa – where assembly operations are a shell of what they once were, with only about 2,500 unionized workers.
Existing contracts expire September 19 for Canadian GM, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ford Motor Co workers.
A key sticking point is the union’s request to secure more work for the 4,000 GM employees it represents in Ontario.
Union officials had no additional comment early Monday, the news report said. Together, those plants employ 7,200 workers or about one-third of union members employed by the Detroit Three in Canada.
“There is a clear understanding and a respect of what this plant can do”, Dias said.
The Oshawa plant now assembles some GM Equinox vehicles, overflow from the CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, whose workers are covered by a separate labour agreement, and other vehicles that will be phased out or moved after 2019. The Globe And Mail newspaper reported Monday morning that GM had not met Unifor’s demand for new product at either site.
Hammond said Unifor remains “hopeful” that it will reach a labor agreement with GM as its midnight strike deadline approaches. The facility operates two assembly lines – a consolidated line that produces the Chevrolet Equinox, and a flex line that makes the Chevrolet Impala, the Buick Regal and the Cadillac XTS.
Kristin Dziczek, director of research at the independent Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said in an interview last week that the union’s effort to secure a product commitment makes sense, given that winning a popular vehicle model can guarantee jobs.
The V-6s are sent to GM’s Wentzville Assembly Plant, which builds the popular Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups; V-6 engines also go to GM’s Lansing Grand River Assembly, Lansing Delta Township, GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck, Oshawa and CAMI assembly plants.
A strike would affect an engine and transmission plant in St. Catharines, Ontario, near Niagara Falls.
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As the deadline for an agreement between Unifor and GM looms, BNN speaks to the Mayor of Oshawa, John Henry, about the impact a strike could have on the city that houses General Motors Canada’s headquarters. The union chose GM as its strike target for contract talks, with GM’s deal setting the pattern for the other manufacturers that are expected to sign similar deals.
