Canadian auto union faces Catch-22 in General Motors fight

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21/02/2019 12:00

By Susan Taylor
    TORONTO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Jerry Dias, the leader of
Canada's auto union, is unsparing in his rhetorical attacks on
General Motors Co's  GM.N  decision to close its Oshawa,
Ontario, assembly plant and lay off thousands of union workers
by year-end.
    But when it comes to action, Unifor's president has been far
more circumspect. 
    Dias promised "drastic measures" to compel GM to extend
production of sedans and pickups, including the Silverado, to
Sept. 21, 2020, when the current labor contract expires.
    For more than a century, GM's complex in Oshawa, a city east
of Toronto, has been an economic engine for Ontario and Canada,
anchored by thousands of highly paid manufacturing jobs. 
    After GM's November announcement of a broad restructuring,
including Oshawa, the union backed brief production disruptions,
a call to boycott GM's Mexican-made vehicles and a "solidarity"
concert for workers by British musician Sting.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2030LP
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1Z917R
    But Dias has not yet deployed the biggest weapon in his
arsenal – a general strike to fully halt production of Silverado
and Sierra pickups, vital to the Detroit automaker's
profitability. 
    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 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  CEVAL.S .
"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 C$14 an hour.
    Over time, their wages rose to C$20.50, 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  SGBI.UL .
    
    '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.
    GM Canada says the agreement notes that market conditions
may arise beyond the company's control. "The union has also been
aware since 2016 that Oshawa truck production was temporary and
ending in 2019," said spokesman David Paterson. 
    So far, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has refused to retreat
from her restructuring plans despite criticism from U.S.
President Donald Trump, Canadian politicians and unions in both
countries. She has also declined to meet with Dias.
    "We have a lot more cards to play," Dias said. "But I'm not
going to find a solution playing solitaire."
    Dias has looked for support from his U.S. counterparts in
the United Auto Workers union. The two unions, which broke apart
more than three decades ago, discussed cooperating on their
campaigns to save plants, but provided no details.
    In the past 23 years, there have only been two autoworker
strikes in Canada, said Unifor's director of research.
    "We used to have strikes at every round of bargaining among
auto assemblers right from the beginning in 1937," said Bill
Murnighan. "But Canada now has a very low number of strikes
compared to past eras and compared to other countries."

    A GM THAT CAN SAY NO
    GM's decision to end production at Oshawa and four U.S.
plants is emblematic of a global shift, as automakers
restructure and invest in next-generation vehicles, including
electric and self-driving cars. With North American sales
projected to flatten or decline, automakers are also wary of
maintaining unnecessary capacity in the region.
    Politicians on both sides of the border have reminded GM
that the U.S. and Canadian governments rescued it with public
money a decade ago.
    After contributing more than C$10.5 billion to the 2009 GM
bailout, the Canadian and Ontario governments sold their final
equity stakes in 2015. A set of financing commitments, including
domestic production, expired one year later, GM's Paterson said.
    Trump has threatened to cut all GM subsidies, a tough stance
that Unifor has asked Canadian officials to adopt. But
politicians from Ottawa and Toronto have taken a more moderate
approach, saying there is nothing more they can do without GM's
cooperation. Dias calls their response inadequate.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1Y10ST
    "That couldn't be further from the truth. ... We have been
having conversations repeatedly," said a federal government
official. "I don't think the solution is just throwing money at
the company." 
    The provincial government agrees. 
    "We've asked many, many times - and offered all kinds of
different things - What can we do, as the government of Ontario,
for you to change your mind?" said Economic Development Minister
Todd Smith. "And the answer has always been: 'Nothing.'"

($1 = 1.3176 Canadian dollars)
    

 (Reporting by Susan Taylor in Toronto; Additional reporting by
David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Joseph White and Peter
Cooney)
 ((susan.taylor1@thomsonreuters.com; +1 416 941 8083; Reuters
Messaging: susan.taylor1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))