GM News: General Motors Rejects Unifor Pleas To Keep Oshawa Open, Workers Stage A Sit-Down Strike

[William Maley]

"Yesterday, General Motors met with representatives with Canadian union Unifor - the second in less in two weeks. Talks centered around Oshawa with Unifor pleading to reconsider plans of phasing out products at the plant to keep 3,000 jobs. But those talks went nowhere as GM is moving forward with their restructuring plans.

"Unfortunately, all Unifor’s proposals would involve substantial incremental costs and a further deterioration of GM’s competitive position. Having completed an analysis of Unifor’s proposals, GM has determined that it cannot pursue them because they would not combat the declining economic and market factors that must be addressed," wrote GM's vice president of manufacturing and labor relations Gerald Johnson and president of GM Canada Travis Hester to Unifor president Jerry Dias in a letter.

Unifor had proposed a number of ideas to GM keep Oshawa open including "continuing production of older trucks while the company looks for a longer-term option," according to The Detroit News. GM said no to the various ideas, but will support "retraining opportunities for Oshawa employees and working with businesses in the region to help facilitate relocation when the plant phases out production."

Dias wasn't too happy with the result of talks, saying at a press conference yesterday that GM leaders "in my opinion haven’t reached deep enough or far enough to find a solution. We are not accepting the closure of our Oshawa facilities under any circumstance."

Workers at Oshawa's afternoon shift staged a sit-down protest yesterday starting around 5:00 P.M. and lasting till 9:45 when GM decided to send them home. Photos and videos posted to Unifor Canada show workers sitting at their stations and buzzers sounding off. Automotive News reports that a second sit-down protest took place this morning for 90 minutes at 8:00 A.M.

“We understand our union’s frustration but need to now work together to deliver support, transition and training for our employees for new opportunities over the coming year,” GM Canada spokeswoman Jennifer Wright.

It is unclear if the protests will continue or how much production was lost. What is certain is that Unifor will hold a mass rally in Windsor on Friday.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), The Detroit News

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[A Horse With No Name]

What do they have to loose by striking at this point?

[G. David Felt]

Yawn, nothing new, to be expected. I would sure hate to buy one of the auto's assembled there right now. I can just see the crap that would be pulled by pissed off workers on the auto's. Reminds me of so many stories about auto's with unfinished work or hidden tools that made clunk noises, etc. from strikes at plants due to people sabotaging the assembly of the said auto's.

[ccap41]

52 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

What do they have to loose by striking at this point?

paychecks

[A Horse With No Name]

17 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

paychecks

Which are going away in a few months anyways. Not sure that they also don't get some form of strike pay. 

[ccap41]

16 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Which are going away in a few months anyways. Not sure that they also don't get some form of strike pay. 

I know if I wasn't guaranteed a job in a few months I would be taking the checks I can get now and managing that money carefully..

Then again I feel like I'm smart enough not to put myself in a situation where I'm striking my employer.. ??‍♂️

[A Horse With No Name]

44 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I know if I wasn't guaranteed a job in a few months I would be taking the checks I can get now and managing that money carefully..

Then again I feel like I'm smart enough not to put myself in a situation where I'm striking my employer.. ??‍♂️

Free markets work best. I am more liberal on some issues but companies should be able to hire and fire who they want.

Honda here in Ohio is non union and they have never had a layoff.

[ccap41]

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Free markets work best. I am more liberal on some issues but companies should be able to hire and fire who they want.

Honda here in Ohio is non union and they have never had a layoff.

I agree. They should be able to hire and fire whoever they want. 

[A Horse With No Name]

1 minute ago, ccap41 said:

I agree. They should be able to hire and fire whoever they want. 

Which is why I am a little bit miffed at both of my senators for trying to force GM into keeping Lordstown open.

[daves87rs]

I would simply close the plant this weekend and call it a day.

Yes, it really it that easy....

Too bad GM is too dumb to see the fallout from this....

#karmaisawitch

 

[G. David Felt]

7 minutes ago, daves87rs said:

I would simply close the plant this weekend and call it a day.

Yes, it really it that easy....

Too bad GM is too dumb to see the fallout from this....

#karmaisawitch

 

No Fall out, smart management of cutting costs as the economy cools. 

At Will Employment, no one is promised a job. Every Company does this and yet for some messed up reason so many people want to prosecute GM and give a pass to so many others.

Bank of America has pushed the bulk of their work force to part time to avoid paying benefits and reduce costs while increasing executive compensation and I do not see people attacking them.

This can be said of so many companies, GM is doing what is needed to survive and reduce over capacity. I really fail to see why so many people think they are promised a job as well as security. Where does it say that in our constitution?

Also so many people have talked even here at C&G about the over capacity glut of auto manufacturing and yet GM seems to be the only one with stones to do something about it for their long term strength and survival.

Weird how everyone seems to be up in arms over this normal business function. ?

[daves87rs]

6 hours ago, dfelt said:

No Fall out, smart management of cutting costs as the economy cools. 

At Will Employment, no one is promised a job. Every Company does this and yet for some messed up reason so many people want to prosecute GM and give a pass to so many others.

Bank of America has pushed the bulk of their work force to part time to avoid paying benefits and reduce costs while increasing executive compensation and I do not see people attacking them.

This can be said of so many companies, GM is doing what is needed to survive and reduce over capacity. I really fail to see why so many people think they are promised a job as well as security. Where does it say that in our constitution?

Also so many people have talked even here at C&G about the over capacity glut of auto manufacturing and yet GM seems to be the only one with stones to do something about it for their long term strength and survival.

Weird how everyone seems to be up in arms over this normal business function. ?

Pretty sure everyone looks like banks (like BOA) as evil and expect that anyways...

And you have to remember that these are the last of the decent paying line jobs.  GM could have full automation in their plants within months if they wanted to. But there is still some old school pride in having people build the cars-and in normal times-this might have been looked at as something that “has” to happen. In times like this-not so much. Hence why it is looked so bad upon. Granted GM does see some of the writing on the wall, but they can’t even give their employees a solid reason either (like why they can’t move product around instead) is why they are so pissed....

At some point, it’s not going to make a difference anyways. Sales in general are going to take a major slide....rough times and sky high prices are going to give the industry a beating they have never seen before.

And GM doesn’t learn anyways...don’t announce these things-just do them. Even the banks have that figured out...

[A Horse With No Name]

8 hours ago, daves87rs said:

I would simply close the plant this weekend and call it a day.

Yes, it really it that easy....

Too bad GM is too dumb to see the fallout from this....

#karmaisawitch

 

Agree completely.

43 minutes ago, daves87rs said:

Pretty sure everyone looks like banks (like BOA) as evil and expect that anyways...

And you have to remember that these are the last of the decent paying line jobs.  GM could have full automation in their plants within months if they wanted to. But there is still some old school pride in having people build the cars-and in normal times-this might have been looked at as something that “has” to happen. In times like this-not so much. Hence why it is looked so bad upon. Granted GM does see some of the writing on the wall, but they can’t even give their employees a solid reason either (like why they can’t move product around instead) is why they are so pissed....

At some point, it’s not going to make a difference anyways. Sales in general are going to take a major slide....rough times and sky high prices are going to give the industry a beating they have never seen before.

And GM doesn’t learn anyways...don’t announce these things-just do them. Even the banks have that figured out...

Which is why I am in the process of calling both of my senators and demand that not another dime be spent to bail out automakers.

[riviera74]

I do not foresee another bailout of any company, automaker or not, anytime soon.  Unifor needs to recognize that they are no longer needed and they should seek another job.

As for Honda, when was the last time their sales (of any ONE vehicle) fell 25-50%?  That has never happened.  Their factory in Marysville OH is flexible enough so that layoffs are unnecessary. And people keep buying Hondas.

[A Horse With No Name]

28 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

I do not foresee another bailout of any company, automaker or not, anytime soon.  Unifor needs to recognize that they are no longer needed and they should seek another job.

As for Honda, when was the last time their sales (of any ONE vehicle) fell 25-50%?  That has never happened.  Their factory in Marysville OH is flexible enough so that layoffs are unnecessary. And people keep buying Hondas.

TLX sedan is down by about that much....

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

I do not foresee another bailout of any company, automaker or not, anytime soon.  Unifor needs to recognize that they are no longer needed and they should seek another job.

As for Honda, when was the last time their sales (of any ONE vehicle) fell 25-50%?  That has never happened.  Their factory in Marysville OH is flexible enough so that layoffs are unnecessary. And people keep buying Hondas.

If the starting recession goes deep enough, FORD will need to be bailed out. Their debt is way out of control and the loans would call it all in just about killing the company. I can see Ford and FCA being the next auto companies to need a bailout.

[A Horse With No Name]

14 minutes ago, dfelt said:

If the starting recession goes deep enough, FORD will need to be bailed out. Their debt is way out of control and the loans would call it all in just about killing the company. I can see Ford and FCA being the next auto companies to need a bailout.

Maybe it is time for certain Legacy carmakers to pass away off of the scene and be replaced by Rivan and Tesla and the like.  Just sayin...we should not have bailed out the banks either.  Free Market economics would be a great thing if we would just try it.

[thedriver]

FCA is in good financial shape. They have been paying down their debt very well. Now they just need new product that isnt a jeep or truck.

[A Horse With No Name]

4 minutes ago, thedriver said:

FCA is in good financial shape. They have been paying down their debt very well. Now they just need new product that isnt a jeep or truck.

Plus they seem to really care about customers. They are not perfect, but I like the idea of choice and being  able to get the vehicle I want. FCA seems to understand that.

[Suaviloquent]

There was a market crash in 1921. That was the most recent time that the Fed did not get involved. There were M&A's, bankruptcies and a lot of businesses went under.  But within about 12 months, the economy had recovered and in 18 months everybody forgot it, and people only remember the great depression as the significant economic downturn of the early to mid 20th century.

[A Horse With No Name]

19 minutes ago, Suaviloquent said:

There was a market crash in 1921. That was the most recent time that the Fed did not get involved. There were M&A's, bankruptcies and a lot of businesses went under.  But within about 12 months, the economy had recovered and in 18 months everybody forgot it, and people only remember the great depression as the significant economic downturn of the early to mid 20th century.

Bailouts usually don't help much.

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Bailouts usually don't help much.

GM could be an exception, but then there are always exceptions.

[riviera74]

Nobody here wants financial companies bailed out.  Ford should have paid back all that debt that Alan Mullaly raised in 2007 (or at least a LOT of it).

As for allowing companies to go bust, if the Federal government allowed Chrysler to die in 1978, Ford and GM would have treated Japan inc as the invasion force they were and fought back a lot more strenuously.  There is nothing inherently wrong with companies going under in a recession.  Too bad a lot of government types and interest groups do not see it that way.

[oldshurst442]

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

Nobody here wants financial companies bailed out.  Ford should have paid back all that debt that Alan Mullaly raised in 2007 (or at least a LOT of it).

As for allowing companies to go bust, if the Federal government allowed Chrysler to die in 1978, Ford and GM would have treated Japan inc as the invasion force they were and fought back a lot more strenuously.  There is nothing inherently wrong with companies going under in a recession.  Too bad a lot of government types and interest groups do not see it that way.

That be a neat idea if all the countries in the world played by those rules.  

Germany and Japan and (France) protect their industries and do not let them go bankrupt. They also have protectionist laws that favour their home market vehicles that is a detriment to their foreign competition.

It also helps that their home market, the locals actually do favour their own industries...

Their corporate world, well, they cant just close down factories and move them at will...(Before the bailouts and right after, when GM wanted to address their finances and labour costs and GM wanted Germany to fix Opel, Germany told GM to phoque off!!! GM couldnt negotiate labour salaries with their Opel plants in Germany and GM  couldnt even close down any Opel factories in Germany...)

Its too bad that Americans keep on buying foreign cars at a voracious rate  and then complain why GM is closing its plants in North America and its too bad that Americans bitch about unfair trade practises around the world yet allow their own corporations to close down the factories so their corporate world goes elsewhere to build American stuff...(contradictory statements yet reality on how dumb American capitalism can be...)

Its too bad that American presidents  say the right things about unfair trade practises that America faces yet target the wrong phoquing countries and its too damned bad that some Americans are too dumb to realize what is what...

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by oldshurst442

[balthazar]

11 hours ago, daves87rs said:

Pretty sure everyone looks like banks (like BOA) as evil and expect that anyways...

Take it from the spouse of an insider- BoA is too stupid to be evil.

[riviera74]

33 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Take it from the spouse of an insider- BoA is too stupid to be evil.

What was that line: Never mistake malice for incompetence. . . . or something like that.

Unfortunately, that applies everywhere, not just in Corporate America.

 

Oldshurst has a point about other countries favoring the home team in terms of buying goods and services, whereas a lot of Americans (since the 70s) essentially said: it's all about ME and not about WE.

[Suaviloquent]

Of course the last time the Fed did not do quantitative easing....what a beautiful way to say print money and then charge us interest in the inflation....we were not really globalized to the same degree and America was showing the beginning of the potential to one day or one decade later rather be an economic superpower.