GM and the Unifor have been divided over union demands that the USA carmaker commit to new vehicle models at its Oshawa, Ontario, plant.
Advertisement
The contracts with all three automakers expire at 11:59 p.m. Monday, but if there is no deal, there will be a strike at GM only.
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 September 19.
Unifor president Jerry Dias, determined to keep GM from moving jobs out of Canada, said Saturday there had been no significant progress on a key issue – getting the US carmaker to commit to making new vehicle models in Oshawa.
Canada has been struggling to get new investment from automakers in its once-thriving vehicle industry, losing out to the southern United States and lower-cost Mexico.
Between 2001 and 2013, some 14,300 jobs were lost in vehicle manufacturing in Canada, according to Hamilton’s Automotive Policy Research Center.
Assembly line workers at the General Motors Assembly plant in Oshawa work on cars. Pensions and wages are also on the table.
Unifor has painted this set of negotiations as critical to the future of auto manufacturing in Canada, which has been shedding vehicle manufacturing jobs since the turn of the century as automakers largely invest in Mexico and the US instead.
Strike deadlines have been sometimes postponed in previous talks with the Detroit Three. Late last month, workers at GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler plants in Ontario handed the union a strike mandate in preparation for the hardline talks. Without a deal, the union’s 3,900 GM members would legally be considered on strike as of midnight.
It could also have serious implications for parts makers, including Lakeside Plastics in Woodstock, Ont., which supplies parts for General Motors.
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.
GM declined to comment Sunday on what progress has been made, referring to earlier statements that the company wants to reach “a mutually beneficial and competitive new agreement”.
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. He cautioned, however, that the company and the union have “a hell of a lot of work to do”.
Advertisement
But halting engine and transmission production in St. Catharines would have a domino effect at Cami and stop production of Equinox and GMC Terrain. “The UAW is going to support the Canadian auto workers”, said Williams.
