‘WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET OUR PLANT CLOSE’
Union leader urges Trudeau and Trump to get tough with GM over plant closures, calls for punishing tariffs on vehicles the automaker imports from Mexico
A defiant union leader is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump to work together on an “aggressive” strategy to force General Motors to reverse plans to cease production in Oshawa and four other plants in the United States.
Jerry Dias, the national president of Unifor that represents some 2,500 workers at the Oshawa plant, called for punishing tariffs on General Motors vehicles produced in Mexico and labour action in both Canada and the U.S. to get the company’s attention.
“We’re playing with a corporation that plays by its own rules,” Dias told report- ers on Parliament Hill.
“If you’re going to have a company that’s going to show us their middle finger, then I think our governments should show them their middle finger as well,” he said.
Dias warned that the stakes are high. General Motors has already moved production of five vehicles out of Canada — four of those to Mexico — and closure of the Oshawa plant will only leave one GM vehicle produced in the country, he said.
“GM is on the cusp of complete disinvestment in Canada and will lead to a catastrophic end to Canada’s most lucrative export industry,” he said. “We are not going to let our plant close.”
“Our plant in Oshawa is not closing and we will do whatever it takes to make sure our plant in Oshawa doesn’t close,” said Dias, who will be in the U.S. on Wednesday for meetings with his counterparts at the United Auto Workers.
General Motors announced on Monday that it intended to halt production in Oshawa and four facilities in the U.S. by the end of 2019 as part of a transformation to refocus its lineup on crossovers, SUVs and trucks and zero emissions vehicles.
News of the plant closures rippled in Washington and Ottawa on Tuesday. Trump took a hard line, saying he was “very disappointed” that plants were closing in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland and vowed possible reprisals.
“Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get! We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars,” Trump said on Twitter.
“General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) — don’t think that bet is going to pay off. I am here to protect America’s Workers!” the president said. Trump and Trudeau spoke Tuesday about the plant closings, expressing disappointment at the decision and “underscored their concerns for the workers, families, and communities affected,” according to a readout of the conversation provided by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Prime Minister’s Office gave no hint whether the federal government intended to work with the U.S. administration on the issue. But Dias emerged from a lengthy meeting with Trudeau on Tuesday expressing optimism that the prime minister doesn’t see the Oshawa closure as a “fait accompli.”
“He’s certainly going to do whatever he can to get their attention. If that means that we have a joint strategy with the United States, I would welcome that,” Dias said.
Also present at that meeting were Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff; Navdeep Bains, the minister of innovation, science and economic development; and Patty Hajdu, minister of employment, workforce development and labour.
Dias said he told the prime minister if GM refuses to reverse course, Canada and the U.S. should look at “significant tariffs” on GM vehicles made in Mexico “to get their attention.”
“It’s clear that General Motors would prefer to build cars in Mexico and ship them to the United States and Canada,” Dias said.
Dias said that Trudeau and Trump “both share a similar concern.”
“Job loss was announced in Canada and the United States and, of course, there was no impact on anybody in Mexico or any assembly plants,” Dias said.
A spokesperson for Trudeau would not say whether the prime minister supported Dias’ call for tariffs.
United States, Canada and Mexico just completed negotiations for a new North American trade pact, due to be signed later this week. It includes provisions to stem the flow of auto jobs to Mexico but they won’t take effect for several years.
Dias said he spoke with GM executives on Monday and got no indication they would be open to government proposals to keep the plant operating.
He said the Oshawa plant is one of GM’s best with a top paint shop and known for its quality work. He said it could easily produce the vehicles now made in Mexican plants and any of the new designs that GM says it wants to focus on.
“We can build them all. We have a flexible platform in Oshawa that can build every vehicle that GM makes,” he said.
And he suggested that it would not take much government funding to keep the plant run- ning. “This isn’t a situation where they’re going to have to pony up billions of dollars in order to get things rolling. The infrastructure is all there. All we need is the political will,” he said.
A General Motors spokesperson could not be reached for comment. However, representative David Paterson told The Canadian Press that the company does not intend to abandon its Canadian operations and indeed noted that it’s hiring 500 people for its technical centre in Markham.
“We sell in Canada, we manufacture in Canada, and we’re actually the biggest and fastestgrowing new technology automotive company in Canada,” said Paterson, the company’s vice-president of corporate and environmental affairs.
At Queen’s Park, Ontario Economic Development Minister Todd Smith accused opposition parties of giving GM workers a “false sense of hope” by pushing to keep assembly lines rolling in Oshawa.
“They’re dug in on this,” he said of General Motors, citing a conversation with the auto giant’s Detroit-based chief executive Mary Barra.
Addressing concerns that rival automakers Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota could pull vehicle production from Ontario in the coming years as the industry transitions to electric and autonomous vehicles, Smith said “we want to work with those companies” but noted the government’s business support programs are under review to ensure taxpayers are getting “bang for our buck.”
“While we don’t have buckets of money to be handing them (auto companies) to keep them in Ontario, we can make it easier for them to do business in Ontario. We’re going to reduce regulation where we can,” he added.
“They have their business plans, they have their vehicle allocations and so far, from the conversations that we’ve had, we feel confident that the other four are going to live up to those commitments that they’ve made to Ontario.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Smith’s comments about an uncertain future for business support programs sends the “wrong message” to the auto industry as it contemplates the best location for future production.