GM, Unifor to discuss union's Oshawa proposals later this week

Unifor President Jerry Dias says Canadian union officials will meet high-ranking General Motors executives in Detroit later this week to give the automaker more time to consider the union’s proposals to keep the Oshawa Assembly plant open.

Dias said GM officials will hold “a major internal meeting” Monday and that he will speak to them after that to arrange a day and time to meet to discuss a trio of union proposals put forth Dec. 20 to save the plant from closure. Dias and other union members met with GM officials — but not CEO Mary Marra —  for about two hours that day, outlining several proposals to keep the plant operational.

General Motors originally said it would officially respond to the union’s proposals by Jan. 7, but Dias said it’s in the union’s best interest to allow the automaker all the time it needs to make a decision.

“The bottom line is that we need a solution. And the only solution is to keep Oshawa open,” Dias said. 

The automaker said in November it would no longer allot product to the plant beyond 2019. It will end a shuttle program that sees unfinished outgoing models of the GM Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado shipped to Oshawa from Indiana for final assembly at the Ontario plant. GM also said it will stop making the Chevy Impala and Cadillac XTS, both of which are built in Oshawa. 

The union’s proposals include launching GM’s new Blazer in Oshawa rather than Mexico, extending truck production in Oshawa, extending two existing passenger vehicle programs and bringing product back to Canada from Mexico, Dias said. The Oshawa plant is “one of the only plants in North America that can build both cars and trucks.”

Dias said he’s talked with GM since that Dec. 20 meeting, but is willing to “waiting for something more concrete.”

GM served notice to the union in November that it intends to end production in Oshawa, something the automaker had to do in accordance with the current collective bargaining agreement. But, there is nothing to say GM can’t reverse that decision.

Meanwhile, the union representing workers at theGeneral Motors assembly plant in Ontario is continuing an international ad campaign to pressure the automaker to keep it running.

And Unifor promises to get more aggressive if General Motors won't reverse course.

Since that Dec. 20 meeting, Unifor launched radio and social media campaigns in Canada and began rolling out print advertising in the United States, including an ad on Page 11S of this issue.

The automaker directed requests for comment to GM Canada, which didn't return phone calls and emails last week.

Dias said the original ads in GM's hometown newspapers were designed to get the automaker's attention "in a minor way" and promised a "no holds barred" media campaign on both sides of the border if the company doesn't signal that it could back away from its plans for Oshawa.

Unifor officials spent two hours outlining options and solutions to keep the Oshawa plant operating beyond 2019, he said.

GM executives did not "unilaterally close the door on keeping the plant open," Dias said, adding the meeting didn't include CEO Mary Barra.

Should Unifor, formed in a 2013 merger of unions including the Canadian Auto Workers, find GM's response to the union's proposals unsatisfactory, it will ramp up its spending on both sides of the border in an effort to persuade GM to reverse its decision. It's even called for Canadians to boycott GM products after 2019 should the Oshawa plant close.

At the same time, the UAW is reportedly suing GM, saying the company should transfer workers from its Lordstown, Ohio, plant to Fort Wayne, Ind. The Ohio plant was slated for future closure along with Oshawa and three others in North America.