The Canadian union representing employees at the Oshawa, Ontario plant of general Motors has urged both Canadian and U.S. consumers not to purchase cars of GM manufactured in Mexico. This is the latest step taken by the union in Canada to force the GM authorities to come to the negotiating table with the employees.
The Oshawa production unit of GM has been announced to be closed down by the company by the end of the current year but the employees union Unifor has demanded that the company should continue to manufacture vehicles till September 2020 – the time when the current contract would expire. The employees union hopes that by that time, there can be enough time to think out a solution for continuance of the plant in Oshawa.
According to GM, the closure of the plant in Oshawa would result in job losses of 2,973 employees in the assembly-line and is a part of a larger strategy for restructuring undertaken by the company to bring down production costs in the face of necessity of increasing investments in electric and self driving vehicles.
Unifor President Jerry Dias said in an interview that amounting to approximately $20 billion in sales, GM exports anything between 600,000 and 650,000 vehicles which are manufactured every year in Mexico and are exported into Canada and the United States.
GM Canada said that it sells a total of about 37,000 vehicles annually in Canada which has a total of 47 models and only 3 of the models sold it sells in Canada are imported from outside of it.
Dias however did not give a call for a total boycott of all GM cars in Canada because the union he represents also has as members GM employees of the Ontario plans who assemble the Chevrolet Equinox and work at a propulsion plant.
"Buyers will need to know which particular models to avoid. Only a few versions of the GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, and Chevrolet Cruze are sourced from Mexico," said AutoForecast Solutions vice president Sam Fiorani. "The majority of them come from plants in the U.S. or Canada."
Dias said that the union would consider s strike of the call for the boycott is not able to bring the GM to the negotiating table. He also added that there is no plan currently for job action.
"The only way to get General Motors' attention is if we fight back," Dias said at a press conference. He added the consumers can easily identify vehicles that are made in Mexico because all such vehicles in Canada that have a vehicle identification number, or VIN which starts with a 3 is one that has been made in Mexico.
GM Canada said that for the more than Ontario-based auto parts companies that support production in Mexico would have to face “collateral damage” by the move to boycott.
(Source:www.channelnewsasia.com)
The Oshawa production unit of GM has been announced to be closed down by the company by the end of the current year but the employees union Unifor has demanded that the company should continue to manufacture vehicles till September 2020 – the time when the current contract would expire. The employees union hopes that by that time, there can be enough time to think out a solution for continuance of the plant in Oshawa.
According to GM, the closure of the plant in Oshawa would result in job losses of 2,973 employees in the assembly-line and is a part of a larger strategy for restructuring undertaken by the company to bring down production costs in the face of necessity of increasing investments in electric and self driving vehicles.
Unifor President Jerry Dias said in an interview that amounting to approximately $20 billion in sales, GM exports anything between 600,000 and 650,000 vehicles which are manufactured every year in Mexico and are exported into Canada and the United States.
GM Canada said that it sells a total of about 37,000 vehicles annually in Canada which has a total of 47 models and only 3 of the models sold it sells in Canada are imported from outside of it.
Dias however did not give a call for a total boycott of all GM cars in Canada because the union he represents also has as members GM employees of the Ontario plans who assemble the Chevrolet Equinox and work at a propulsion plant.
"Buyers will need to know which particular models to avoid. Only a few versions of the GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, and Chevrolet Cruze are sourced from Mexico," said AutoForecast Solutions vice president Sam Fiorani. "The majority of them come from plants in the U.S. or Canada."
Dias said that the union would consider s strike of the call for the boycott is not able to bring the GM to the negotiating table. He also added that there is no plan currently for job action.
"The only way to get General Motors' attention is if we fight back," Dias said at a press conference. He added the consumers can easily identify vehicles that are made in Mexico because all such vehicles in Canada that have a vehicle identification number, or VIN which starts with a 3 is one that has been made in Mexico.
GM Canada said that for the more than Ontario-based auto parts companies that support production in Mexico would have to face “collateral damage” by the move to boycott.
(Source:www.channelnewsasia.com)
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