CAW will consider striking GM next week
CAW will consider striking GM next week
Automaker stands by decision to close Oshawa truck plant
Automotive News | June 6, 2008 - 10:15 am EST
DETROIT — Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said today the union will decide as soon as next week whether it will strike against General Motors after the automaker upheld its decision to close a truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario.
In a private meeting here earlier today, CEO Rick Wagoner told Hargrove that GM was standing by the plant closure, expected in September 2009.
“They stood by it, but that doesn’t mean they justified it, and they didn’t,” Hargrove told Automotive News. “We’re going to explore all avenues available and decide whether, what and if action is going to take place.”
The Oshawa truck plant, which employs 2,600 workers, was one of four truck and SUV plants GM said this week that it was closing.
“The union was very well-represented, passionate and honest about their feelings and their points of view,” GM spokesman Stew Low said of the 90-minute meeting.
“We provided further insight into why we made the decisions we did with responding to the U.S. marketplace and moving out of truck production and into cars in order to come up with the right product mix for our customers,” Low said.
Low said GM is considering adding production of a second unidentified car at GM’s car plant in Oshawa. The plant makes the Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Impala sedans, and begins production of the Camaro later this year. GM’s agreement with the CAW promised production of one additional vehicle by fall 2011, but Low said GM could add production of two vehicles to the plant over time.
GM declined to comment about a possible strike.
Said Low: “We’re not going to speculate on something that hasn’t happened yet.”
CAW members set up a blockade at GM Canada headquarters in Oshawa to protest the decision. The protest has effectively closed the building and forced all corporate employees to work from home since Wednesday, June 4.
The CAW reached a deal with GM in May that kept the truck plant open until September 2009.
The plant builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. U.S. sales in May were down 42 percent for the Silverado and 31.4 percent for the Sierra compared with the same month last year. Overall truck sales for GM are down 39.6 percent for the year.
Closing the four plants was a result of high gasoline prices, which GM now views as permanent, Wagoner said while announcing the closings Tuesday, June 3.
Hargrove said CAW officials would meet next week to decide the union’s next move.
