WINDSOR, Ontario (WXYZ) — A high stakes international story continues to play out between the United States and Canada. The Canadian labor union Unifor is putting on a major campaign to save some 3,000 jobs at General Motors in Oshawa.
GM announced last month plans to close 5 plants next year and eliminating some 14,000 jobs. Oshawa would be the hardest hit.
Today the Unifor team met face-to-face with GM top executives inside the headquarters in the Ren Cen.
President Jerry Dias said afterwards that GM has not slammed the door on options and will consider them until January 7th.
It is not clear what happens next. He says he remains optimistic, the closed door meeting was respectful and emotional.
GM in a statement says:
“The GM restructuring decisions are extremely difficult for Oshawa, but we believe the best approach is to work together to support our employees including support for local training and transition initiatives in the Durham Region. We remain strongly committed to Canada and will continue to engage in dialogue with Unifor.”
Dias calls GM plans in Oshawa “foolish” and says GM is going too far moving work and jobs to Mexico where workers are paid $2 an hour in some cases.
The Unifor campaign is on the ground in Ontario, on the air with TV ads, online and it included a full-page ad in the Detroit Free Press.
7 Action News spend this week in Oshawa where GM has been for more than 100 years and turned the city into the Automobile Capital of Canada.
Generations of families have worked for GM. In the 1980s 23,000 people worked there.
The Oshawa plant makes two sedans GM is phasing out and two pickups that are selling well.
Dias says the closing violates the contract they signed in 2016 that runs until September of 2020.
