More Canadian Auto Workers Set to Strike
Nearly 6,000 Canadian auto workers are poised to join 15,000 others who are already on strike against General Motors Corp. after labor talks failed to progress over the weekend.
Union workers at GM Canada’s St. Catharines plant about 30 miles south of Toronto, planned to walk off the job at 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday night.
The CAW began an escalating strike against GM on Wednesday at the car maker’s Oshawa complex, about 30 miles east of Toronto, after failing to convince the company that it should accept the same labor deal that was forged with Chrysler Corp. at the end of September.
Hargrove told an auditorium full of striking GM workers in Oshawa on Sunday that talks began to break down last Monday after GM lead negotiator, Dean Munger, offered and then retracted a deal on outsourcing that had encouraged the union.
“Mr. Munger, you are going to do at least what you said on Monday, the only question is when you are going to reverse those decisions,” Hargrove told the cheering auto workers.
Hargrove said Friday that if GM bargaining does not show any movement by Monday, the union could open talks with Ford Motor Co. and set a strike deadline there.
He said the talks had been sunk by GM Chief Executive Jack Smith.
“I believe Jack Smith, the chief executive of General Motors, took the bargaining away from the Canadian negotiators and said we’re not going to settle, we’re going to put it on hold and we’re going to test the resolve of the General Motors workers in Canada,” Hargrove said.
The union is set to send the last 5,000 of its 26,000 GM workers on strike by Wednesday at midnight if the world’s largest auto maker does not give in to the union’s demands over outsourcing, the practice of shifting work to outside companies. GM’s decision to move production outside the company would cut 5,500 jobs.
Hargrove said he plans to meet with Munger today, but did not seem hopeful that talks could get back on track.
“We need about 48 hours of hard work and commitment and this can be done,” he said after the rally. “I haven’t seen any of that yet.”
During a question and answer period, one member complained that his unemployed friends were getting calls from GM to cross the picket lines at the Oshawa plants.
Hargrove warned GM that if one replacement worker crossed the lines, his union would punish the entire industry with a shutdown.
“I want to say as clear as I can . . . if they hire scabs at these plants we’ll shut the . . . auto industry down tight, every plant in the country,” Hargrove said.
Analysts said a strike by all GM union workers in Canada could cost the auto maker $100 million to $150 million a week and eventually force plants to shut down in the United States.
Separate talks continued between GM and the United Auto Workers union in the United States but were recessed over the weekend. UAW President Stephen Yokich said Friday that the union needs to make strategy decisions of its own and will confer with CAW leaders on how to proceed.
Hargrove said he spoke to Yokich on Thursday and Saturday and was assured the UAW would not make any moves that would steal bargaining power from the Canadian union.
GM said a strike in Canada would not affect talks with the UAW in the United States. “We’re working pretty much independently,” GM spokesman Gerry Holmes said Friday.
The CAW has said its $36.5-million strike fund could last up to eight weeks and stretch to 16 weeks if new credit is arranged. The union also has set a special meeting for Oct. 18 to raise funds from all 210,000 members of the CAW.
Economists said a prolonged strike against GM in Canada could hurt the country’s economic recovery, shaving up to 1 percentage point off growth in the fourth quarter.
“I think a short strike would have only a transitory effect, but a long one could be very damaging,” said John McCallum, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto.
