Dias concedes there is mixed support for a walkout among union workers. Some Oshawa workers fear that shutting down GM Canada would hurt them much more than the company.
Unifor represents 2,600 assembly-line workers at GM Oshawa and 1,800 workers at plants supplying the Oshawa operations, whose contracts typically have lower pay, benefits and security. Some 1,500 work at feeder plants that are entirely reliant on Oshawa.
That is a sharp drop from the mid-1990s, when Unifor’s predecessor union — the Canadian Auto Workers — counted 14,750 hourly members in Oshawa.
“We’re working in the GM plant, but we’re not GM,” said Sheri Steel, a forklift driver at CEVA Logistics. “Whenever GM shuts down, we do too. We get sent home and we lose pay.”
Strikes can be a “dangerous tactic” when plants face closure, and could drive GM to an earlier exit, she said.
Workers are pressing for talks on closure terms, which can improve on guaranteed worker provisions in a contract, said CEVA Local Chairperson Keith Poulin. Unifor has declined those requests, saying it intends to keep the plant open, he said.
“We live paycheck to paycheck,” said Poulin’s wife, Jean Poulin. More than seven years ago, the couple were hired by companies supplying the GM plant for $14 an hour.
Over time, their wages rose to C$20.50 ($15.54 U.S.), but the 51-year-olds say that with limited severance, no pension and no savings, they cannot afford to retire.
“With a mortgage and bills, we are scared,” said Jean, who delivers parts for Syncreon Automotive.
‘THEY DON’T SCARE ME’
Some union members are nervous about their future, Dias told Reuters in an interview, but he is not. “They’ve got a lot of power,” he said of GM. “But they don’t scare me at all.”
Unifor has laid the groundwork for tougher action. It charged GM with breaking terms of the 2016 collective agreement, committing it to keep Oshawa open until the deal ends in 2020. It filed a grievance that is proceeding to arbitration.
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