Unifor Settlement with GM -- Footprint or Toe Tag?
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- Published on Wednesday, 05 June 2019 10:12
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1825 ... May 14, 2019
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Unifor Settlement with GM -- Footprint or Toe Tag?
Tony Leah
Did Unifor President Jerry Dias make a deal to save the Oshawa plant, or did he give in and accept GM’s determination to end vehicle production in Oshawa?
Just before Christmas last year, GM announced their intention to close Oshawa, meaning the loss of 5,000 direct jobs involved in the assembly of cars and trucks, with a much larger impact on the community of Oshawa -- an overall loss of 20,000 jobs.
5,000 jobs, not 2600
GM claimed that 2,600 jobs were affected when they announced the closure, and the media has used that figure ever since. But GM knew that they were taking jobs away from 5,000 workers whose jobs... are directly part of the assembly of vehicles in Oshawa. It has been GM’s deliberate policy over the years to outsource as much of the work as possible to third-party supplier companies -- to force wages and benefits down. Now GM will claim no responsibility for those workers when they leave town. Many of those outsourced jobs are right inside the Oshawa plant -- building services trades, cleaners, workers who sequence and deliver parts, security, the tire room. Others are nearby -- including workers who make foam and manufacture seats, and other parts suppliers. At one time all of those jobs were done by workers who were employed directly by GM, and had the same wages and benefits as other GM assembly workers. Now they make less than second tier assembly workers, have inferior benefits, and most have no pensions. And almost all of them are members of Unifor -- but has Jerry done anything for them?
