Angry Canadian workers lay siege to GM
By
Martha Grevatt
Published Jun 19, 2008 1:10 AM
For 12 days, members of the Canadian Auto Workers union blockaded the corporate
offices of General Motors in Oshawa, Ontario, protesting GM’s plans to
close a truck plant there. Finally, on the morning of June 16, CAW members
complied with a judge’s order to end their blockade, but they continued
the fight with a vehicle parade, circling the plant GM intends to close next
year.
On June 3, GM had announced the planned closing of four truck and sport utility
vehicle plants. Besides Oshawa, the plants are in Moraine, Ohio; Janesville,
Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. None of these closings had been agreed to in
contracts signed last fall with the United Auto Workers in the U.S. and just
last month with the Canadian Auto Workers.
“We just ratified a new three-year collective agreement on May 16. They
committed to products in this plant ... and as of today they’ve pulled
that product out from underneath us. It’s nothing short of
betrayal,” charged CAW Local 222 President Chris Buckley, who represents
the workers at the Oshawa plant.
By morning the next day, hundreds of CAW members had formed a blockade of the
corporate offices. In the following days thousands of workers joined Local 222
in protesting GM’s suddenly announced plans to terminate their 2,600
jobs. No one went in and out of the 900-worker office complex with the lone
exception of payroll employees—the workers had to be paid.
“This decision is unfair, it’s unjust, it’s unwarranted,
it’s illegal, it violates our collective agreement,” CAW President
Buzz Hargrove told the news media, “and we’re going to do
everything in our power—and we have power. We are not going to allow this
to happen.”
On June 8 the protest was visited by Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian
Labor Congress, who pledged the support of the CLC’s 3.2 million members.
Solidarity also came from International Metalworkers Federation General
Secretary Marcello Malentacchi, on behalf of 120 million metalworkers
worldwide.
At a rally later that day, Buckley of Local 222 defiantly proclaimed, “I
can guarantee, and I said this to General Motors about an hour ago on the
highway, they want their building back and they’re not getting their
building back.”
Paul Moist, national president of the 570,000-member Canadian Union of Public
Employees, speaking at the CAW’s Collective Bargaining and Political
Action Convention in Toronto June 10, promised to stand behind the CAW. The
convention heard speaker after speaker vow to back the struggle at GM, knowing
that their jobs too were in jeopardy.
Workers on the blockade, in turn, carried signs that read: “You’re
next.” As one protester told a television reporter, “The CEO of
Ford (was) calling our leader here, Buzz Hargrove, saying, ‘If
you’re going to let GM breach their contract, we’re going to do the
same thing.’”
On one day of the 12-day siege, hundreds of workers also circled the entire GM
complex, blocking delivery of parts for several hours.
Thousands turned out for a march in Oshawa June 12. Meanwhile, GM and the CAW
lawyers were battling in court over GM’s demand for an injunction ending
the blockade. GM also sought $1.5 million in damages from the CAW.
On June 13 Ontario Superior Court Judge David Salmers ordered the union to end
its siege of GM’s offices by June 16 at 7 a.m.
“As of 7 a.m. Monday morning, General Motors can have their building
back, and not until,” Buckley stated.
The judge did not award GM one penny in damages. “Considering all of the
evidence, including but not restricted to the deceit-like behavior that induced
CAW concessions and the almost immediate breach, without apology, of a newly
signed agreement,” the judge stated, “I find without hesitation
that GM Canada does not come to court with clean hands.”
To accuse GM bosses of having unclean hands is an understatement. Hundreds of
thousands of jobs have been cut by the Big Three, going back to the huge wave
of plant closings and layoffs by GM in 1987. Some 150,000 livelihoods have been
wiped out since the 2005 Delphi bankruptcy.
The dramatic action on the part of CAW members began not long after a 13-week
UAW strike at American Axle Motors—once part of GM—forced 30 GM
plants to close. Both the strike and the blockade suggest a resurgence of
militancy on the part of autoworkers.
The fight may spread. In Moraine the union has also stated its intent to fight
the closing. There could also be resistance in Mexico, where, according to
union leader Edgar Arroyo, “The news hit us like a bucket of cold water.
It’s going to affect us all.” Some 4,500 people work at the factory
in Toluca, an industrial hub west of Mexico City.
The struggle is long overdue. Labor-management cooperation, a fraudulent
formulation from the start, is finished. The bosses are out for blood and the
only option is to fight back.
Martha Grevatt has worked for Chrysler in Ohio for over 20 years.
E-mail: [email protected]
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE