The president of the largest private sector union in Canada meets with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today, still vowing to ramp up pressure on General Motors to shift production of another vehicle to Oshawa to stave off the closure of its plant there.
Jerry Dias leads Unifor, the successor to the now-defunct Canadian Auto Workers. He said ahead of today’s meeting that he’d be pushing Ottawa to help his union lobby GM to keep the plant open and save more than 2,500 jobs.
Dias said Canada can’t afford to sit idle as the Detroit-based manufacturer shifts more vehicle production to low-wage jurisdictions like Mexico.
The union president suggested Monday Canada should slap tariffs on Mexican cars to protest GM’s move to shelve production in Oshawa, which has been home to vehicle manufacturing since 1908.
“They aren’t closing our damn plant without one hell of a fight. We’re sick and tired of GM shipping all our jobs to Mexico. Look at what they’ve done to the manufacturing footprint in this country,” Dias said at a rally of Unifor Local 222 members Monday.
“We’re going to have to use every trick and every tool and all the power of the government to make sure GM understands they’re not betraying this country again. We’re not going to let General Motors jerk us around. We’re not going to take it sitting down.”
Dias will address the media at 1:45 p.m. ET. CBCNews.ca will carry his remarks live.
The labour leader has a friendly relationship with the federal Liberal government; he worked closely with Ottawa as it renegotiated NAFTA with the U.S. and Mexico.
Trudeau and Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains have said the government is ready to support workers affected by the closure, but both have pointed out that GM seems unwilling to change its mind about the the Oshawa closure as the company pursues a broader global restructuring.
GM has said the closures announced Monday — auto plants in Michigan, Ohio and Maryland are also poised to close — are necessary because of shifts in consumer buying patterns.
The Oshawa plant makes the Chevrolet Impala, a once-popular sedan that has seen its sales plummet in recent years as North American car buyers increasingly favour pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles.