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GM rebuffs union call to keep plant alive

3K views 36 replies 28 participants last post by  Pruettfan 
#1 ·
http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/ser...606/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. has rebuffed an attempt by its Canadian union to win a reprieve for a pickup truck plant slated for shutdown, sticking to its contention that a shift in consumer attitudes has devastated demand for the vehicles.

A one-hour meeting in Detroit Friday between the company's senior executives and union leaders failed to produce any promise that the Oshawa, Ont., plant east of Toronto will remain open, dashing the hopes of the Canadian Auto Workers, which had hoped to find a compromise.

“We're walking away extremely disappointed. We still feel betrayed,” CAW president Buzz Hargrove said after the meeting with GM chief executive Rick Wagoner, chief financial officer Fritz Henderson and GM Canada president Arturo Elias.

“They're still saying that things changed radically enough that they can't live up to their commitment.”

The union contends the plant shutdown, which will put 2,600 employees out of work next year, violates a collective agreement signed in May, in which the union agreed to several concessions to maintain the jobs. It says the automaker promised that Oshawa would build a new generation of light-duty trucks to be introduced in 2011 in exchange for millions of dollars in labour cost reductions.

GM has said it is simply responding to dropping demand for pickup trucks made at the factory, in the wake of soaring gasoline prices that have made fill ups prohibitively expensive for owners of the Silverados and other half-ton trucks assembled in Oshawa.

GM Canada spokesman Stew Low said the company understands the union's disappointment, but maintained there was a “good exchange” in Detroit between the two sides at the meeting.

Mr. Low said the company did bargain in good faith because at the time of negotiations with the CAW it believed the shift in demand away from trucks was cyclical.

Data gathered since then, Mr. Low said, showed that it wasn't, and that the drop in demand accelerated “rapidly and dramatically”.

The meeting came on the third day of protests at GM's Canadian headquarters in Oshawa. Union local president Chris Buckley, who had warned the protest would escalate if the outcome isn't satisfactory, said Friday it will continue.

“It's tough on everybody but we'll get through this together,” said Mr. Buckley, who planned to return to Oshawa to speak with workers there.

At the blockade, Jim Freeman, 53, who has worked at the truck plant for 25 years, said he was surprised GM did not offer a solution that would have kept the factory open.

“Then, I guess, their request is denied to come into their building,” said Mr. Freeman.

“It shows you how heartless they are, right?” he said.

“They have no loyalty to employees that produce the best vehicles in the world.”

Mr. Hargove said the union will discuss its options after its national convention next week.

“We may go to the labour board, we may go to court, we may go to expedited arbitration, or we may take some other action,” he said following what he described as a “tense” meeting.

“It wasn't a great meeting. They had made up their minds going in.”

Under the labour agreement reached with GM, a plant in Oshawa will begin building a new Camaro sports car, along with a rear-wheel drive car. The contract also preserved one shift at the truck assembly factory in Oshawa until 2009.

But GM said this week that rising fuel prices have lessened demand for gas-guzzling pickup trucks much faster than expected and it would therefore have to stop truck production at the plant.

Mr. Hargrove said the union told GM it is not convinced that economic conditions changed so radically in such a short time.

He said Mr. Wagoner told the CAW he wants to work with the union to bring a possible third vehicle to the GM car plant in Oshawa “but the problem with that is it's difficult for us to get our minds around that when they've made a clear-cut commitment on the truck plant.”
 
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#2 ·
I guess the CAW can't really see what's happening. Things are changing, and truck sales have slowed drastically. And I doubt we'll see an increase even if gas prices go down. Folks are simply too shocked now to think any downturn will be anything but temporary.

The CAW should be trying to get smaller vehicles into Oshawa by negotiating a good deal with GM. They're no longer the low-cost supplier for GM due to the dollar so they have to do something innovative.
 
#5 ·
The CAW should be begging GM for a small car. Right now they are acting like children. There is no way GM is ever going to produce trucks at Oshawa ever again. The market won't support it.
+1! This just goes to show unlike what they said how big, bad GM doesn't care about the workers who build the best quality vehicles in the world, the union workers and leaders don't care about the company. Go ahead and keep building products you can't sell and that you have to put $10,000.00 on the hood so you eventually loose money on them. I need a job and it's your responsibility to provide it for me! What other industry allows this mentality? Not mine that's for sure!:brick
 
#4 ·
You know GM really should offer a solution (ex. temporary shutdown for re-tooling the plant for car production). Its a no-brainer - keep the employees happy, have one of the best plants they have produce a volume seller car etc...

If GM were conducting research into the market conditions while the CAW negotiations were going on they should have at least provided for an alternative to truck/SUV production if the results of the research proved out they way it did.
 
#8 ·
Solution? So GM can suffer more strikes that cost GM $$$$? You have to be joking. If I were in charge, there would be absolutely no GM plant in NA or Canada. Consider yourselves lucky that you are only losing one plant.......for now.....
 
#6 ·
No the smart thing to do is shut down Flint and Pontiac, Keep Oshawa building trucks with 2 shifts.

Retool Moraine for a car haha I have to keep on putting that in.
 
#11 ·
Financially that is not a good solution. Oshawa plant is more expensive to run than any other plants and it does not currently conform to government regulations which will be enforced in a few years. To add to this, vehicles out of Canada cost more to export into other markets and lose money.
 
#10 ·
“They have no loyalty to employees that produce the best vehicles in the world.”
And what kind of loyalty has the union members shown to the company over the years? None at all.
 
#13 ·
“It's tough on everybody but we'll get through this together,” said Mr. Buckley, who planned to return to Oshawa to speak with workers there.

At the blockade, Jim Freeman, 53, who has worked at the truck plant for 25 years, said he was surprised GM did not offer a solution that would have kept the factory open.

“Then, I guess, their request is denied to come into their building,” said Mr. Freeman.
Watch out. GM might realize that they don't really need a Headquarters building or staff in Canada either. With technology today everything can be run from the employees homes, remote locals around Oshawa or Detroit
 
#18 ·
Watch out. GM might realize that they don't really need a Headquarters building or staff in Canada either. With technology today everything can be run from the employees homes, remote locals around Oshawa or Detroit
They really don't have a massive HQ in Canada...Basically a branch office. And if they do not need it, then get rid of it. The only way the compnay will survive in this competititve of a market.
 
#21 ·
"The meeting came on the third day of protests at GM's Canadian headquarters in Oshawa. Union local president Chris Buckley, who had warned the protest would escalate if the outcome isn't satisfactory, said Friday it will continue."

What??? Escalate??? What are they going to do? Strike? They're going to close it anyways! For GM, a strike would be a godsend right now.

Instead of fighting for the plant, I agree they should work on trying to get additional shifts added at the other Oshawa plants. My '95 Monte Carlo was built up there and I was very pleased w/ the quality of it. I have no complaints w/ those plants (from a product build quality standpoint).
 
#25 ·
Reality is that this is a public relations nightmare for GM. It is far more than just a plant closure. The recent transition away from large SUV's and trucks is proof of how fickle the general public can be. If enough sources suggest that something is bad, the public believe it. Yes, trucks and SUV's burn more fuel than most cars, but the public has turned against all large SUV's/trucks, even the most efficient ones.

Only 2 years ago a well appointed large SUV or truck was viewed as a luxury vehicle. Today, many people view the same vehicles with distain. They laugh at their owners and now woulnd't even consider buying one at any price.

My point, for much of my life GM cars have been viewed as a good investment with better than average depreciation. All of this is quickly fading, just as the public's love for large SUV's is fading. GM's constant negative media coverage, from declining sales to recent plant closures is having a strong impact on public perception. Today, mention the fact you own a GM product and now many people look at you with pity. Simply put, in a meeting today a colleague made the comment "we have a strong and positive future...not like General Motors". Worse yet, the audience laughed. They understood the message.

GM management would have better off not signing the agreement with the Oshawa workers a few weeks ago. At least GM management could have saved some dignity by being honest.
 
#26 ·
It was really a shock to hear of the closings tuesday, especially of Oshawa Truck as so many trucks come out of there. I sympathize with the workers, but no job is guaranteed.

I'm sure we'll see sabotage from here on out.
 
#30 ·
I have my doubts about anyone being threatened personally...unless it was the beligerent woman in the Mercedes that first day. Anyway, the action that is taking place now is merely blocking deliveries with a convoy (the car plant and , ironically, the truck plant are both working this Saturday). Hardly dangerous.

If fp115 has some further inside info, perhaps he would care to share it?
 
#34 ·
- The bottom line is that the company did not live up to their end of the agreement -

The union would have never signed this POS agreement if they knew the company was going to close the truck plant -

- Now they have the TV media, radio and the press and the government involved -

- The only way out of this public relations nightmare is to either keep your word - or - offer a fair buyout the same as the one they got at the Windsor plant -
 
#35 ·
Posting the exact same thing again I see? Well here is what I said in the other thread.
The contract did say it would keep the plant open till late 2009 (when they would release the new model truck). The same contract did also state that they plant will remain open so long as there is market demand. As blunt as it may sound, nothing was played wrong on GM's part and they did live up to the agreement.

Media was only covering it mostly on the first day or two, but now haven't been paying much attention to it, since first the blockade was an attempt to prove a point, but now its growing to something which is way more out of hand. The last media coverage I saw on the blockade was the reporter talking about all the illegal things CAW is doing with this blockade and would only take GM to go to court and reep up additional settlements. The government is involved, that is no brainer. THe Canadian and Ontaro government must do something in order to keep the auto industry alive. If more money is not placed into these programs, you will see more trouble in the near future. For GM to possibly get a portion of the $250m towards expansion in Oshawa is great news.
 
#37 ·
Auto workers crack me up. They all think they are entitled to a level of job security that is unheard of in the rest of the world. These workers should take a look at the paper every once in a while. Airlines are laying off thousands of employees, banks and mortgage companies are shutting down operations and laying off employees but they think they should be given life time security.

I read that truck sales are down between 35-35% and are not predicted to return to previous levels. Auto workers need to deal with reality and understand that it is not management's fault, it is just the real world. When you have a HS education and get a factory job making 70k with great benefits straight out of HS you don't expose yourself to the realities of the world and as a result you just dont see the world the way it really is for the rest of us. I have many family members who have only known the UAW world and believe they were promised and owed a life of job security. If you disagree then explain to me why most of the UAW members in the job bank show up to the idle plant and sit rather than go to school or move on with their lives.
 
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