plex

iTrader: (11)

I disagree with your disagreement that new car discounts will destroy resale value.

With the market flooded and more supply than demand for the C7 currently that will equal lower prices all around causing immediate impact on you guessed it resale values.

I personally think the C7 is a good bang for the buck American Sports Car.

Toys4RJill

Rebates hurt resale, that is common knowledge.

So back on topic here.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...awa-plant.html

General Motors is seeking to halt “illegal strike activities” following the company’s decision to shutter its Oshawa plant and slash 2,600 unionized jobs — claiming that ensuing protests have “significantly compromised” GM’s ability to sell products, damaged the company’s reputation and are an “unacceptable safety risk” to employees and the public.

In an application to the Ontario Labour Relations Board obtained by the Star, GM says Unifor, the union representing Oshawa workers, orchestrated walkouts, sit-ins and “rolling blockades” after the company announced in November that it would shutter its plant at the end of 2019 after a century of operations.

.......more at the link

Toys4RJill

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKCN1QA1IB

Canadian auto union faces Catch-22 in General Motors fight

TORONTO (Reuters) - Jerry Dias, the leader of Canada’s auto union, is unsparing in his rhetorical attacks on General Motors Co’s decision to close its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant and lay off thousands of union workers by year-end.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias addresses General Motors assembly workers and supporters protesting GM's announcement to close its Oshawa assembly plant during a rally across the Detroit River from GM's headquarters, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook But when it comes to action, Unifor’s president has been far more circumspect.

Dias promised “drastic measures” to compel GM to extend production of sedans and pickups, including the Silverado, to Sept. 21, 2020, when the current labor contract expires.

For more than a century, GM’s complex in Oshawa, a city east of Toronto, has been an economic engine for Ontario and Canada, anchored by thousands of highly paid manufacturing jobs.

After GM’s November announcement of a broad restructuring, including Oshawa, the union backed brief production disruptions, a call to boycott GM’s Mexican-made vehicles and a “solidarity” concert for workers by British musician Sting.

But Dias has not yet deployed the biggest weapon in his arsenal – a general strike to fully halt production of Silverado and Sierra pickups, vital to the Detroit automaker’s profitability.

Dias concedes there is mixed support for a walkout among union workers. Some Oshawa workers fear that shutting down GM Canada would hurt them much more than the company.

Unifor represents 2,600 assembly-line workers at GM Oshawa and 1,800 workers at plants supplying the Oshawa operations, whose contracts typically have lower pay, benefits and security. Some 1,500 work at feeder plants that are entirely reliant on Oshawa.

That is a sharp drop from the mid-1990s, when Unifor’s predecessor union counted 14,750 hourly members in Oshawa.

“We’re working in the GM plant, but we’re not GM,” said Sheri Steel, a forklift driver at CEVA Logistics. “Whenever GM shuts down, we do too. We get sent home and we lose pay.”

Strikes can be a “dangerous tactic” when plants face closure, and could drive GM to an earlier exit, she said.

Workers are pressing for talks on closure terms, which can improve on guaranteed worker provisions in a contract, said CEVA local Chairperson Keith Poulin. Unifor has declined those requests, saying it intends to keep the plant open, he said.

“We live paycheck to paycheck,” said Poulin’s wife, Jean Poulin. More than seven years ago, the couple were hired by companies supplying the GM plant for C$14 an hour.

Over time, their wages rose to C$20.50, but the 51-year-olds say that with limited severance, no pension and no savings, they cannot afford to retire“With a mortgage and bills, we are scared,” said Jean, who delivers parts for Syncreon Automotive.

‘THEY DON’T SCARE ME’

Some union members are nervous about their future, Dias told Reuters in an interview, but he is not. “They’ve got a lot of power,” he said of GM. “But they don’t scare me at all.”

Unifor has laid the groundwork for tougher action. It charged GM with breaking terms of the 2016 collective agreement, committing it to keep Oshawa open until the deal ends in 2020. It filed a grievance that is proceeding to arbitration.

GM Canada says the agreement notes that market conditions may arise beyond the company’s control. “The union has also been aware since 2016 that Oshawa truck production was temporary and ending in 2019,” said spokesman David Paterson.

So far, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has refused to retreat from her restructuring plans despite criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian politicians and unions in both countries. She has also declined to meet with Dias.

“We have a lot more cards to play,” Dias said. “But I’m not going to find a solution playing solitaire.”

Dias has looked for support from his U.S. counterparts in the United Auto Workers union. The two unions, which broke apart more than three decades ago, discussed cooperating on their campaigns to save plants, but provided no details.


U.S., China sketch outlines for trade dealIn the past 23 years, there have only been two autoworker strikes in Canada, said Unifor’s director of research.

“We used to have strikes at every round of bargaining among auto assemblers right from the beginning in 1937,” said Bill Murnighan. “But Canada now has a very low number of strikes compared to past eras and compared to other countries.”

A GM THAT CAN SAY NO

GM’s decision to end production at Oshawa and four U.S. plants is emblematic of a global shift, as automakers restructure and invest in next-generation vehicles, including electric and self-driving cars. With North American sales projected to flatten or decline, automakers are also wary of maintaining unnecessary capacity in the region.

Politicians on both sides of the border have reminded GM that the U.S. and Canadian governments rescued it with public money a decade ago.

After contributing more than C$10.5 billion to the 2009 GM bailout, the Canadian and Ontario governments sold their final equity stakes in 2015. A set of financing commitments, including domestic production, expired one year later, GM’s Paterson said.

Trump has threatened to cut all GM subsidies, a tough stance that Unifor has asked Canadian officials to adopt. But politicians from Ottawa and Toronto have taken a more moderate approach, saying there is nothing more they can do without GM’s cooperation. Dias calls their response inadequate.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. ... We have been having conversations repeatedly,” said a federal government official. “I don’t think the solution is just throwing money at the company.”

The provincial government agrees.

“We’ve asked many, many times - and offered all kinds of different things - What can we do, as the government of Ontario, for you to change your mind?” said Economic Development Minister Todd Smith. “And the answer has always been: ‘Nothing.’”

($1 = 1.3176 Canadian dollars)

mmarshall

I fully agree. Depriving GM of full-size pick-up production (and those big profits) will hit them where it hurts. The longer the strike, the more GM will be crippled.

If Dias sets up a fund/pool for the benefit of striking GM or Ford workers (assuming that a strike actually happens), I will probably send in a donation. Same with any similar UAW action here in the U.S.

Toys4RJill

mmarshall

geko29

Let me get this straight....workers at the Oshawa plant are going on strike to protest losing their jobs? What bizzaro dimension have I fallen into?

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

how about turn them from a layoff to a firing, no more severance packages?

mmarshall

I can see at least some method to their madness. They are probably going to lose their jobs anyway....why let GM's managers get away with it scot-free? Every hot-selling Silverado or Sierra not produced means more financial loss to the company. GM and (to a lesser extent) Ford have already proved themselves not worthy of the union's loyalty and support.....so one reaps what they sow.

Toys4RJill

mmarshall

That shows that my dealership was at least partly right when they told me that the Hamtramck-plant decision was on hold. Several posters here told be it was B.S.....not to believe them.

Toys4RJill

Toys4RJill

Let's see if the same things happens in Ontario. The new UAW contract is supposed to be negotiated in 2020, so perhaps the Detroit extension coincides with the new contract.

https://blackburnnews.com/windsor/wi...-may-new-hope/

SW17LS

Delaying the closure 7 months and putting it on "hold" are not the same thing. Putting it on hold implies that the decision may be reversed, attending the deadline 7 months because you want to extend the production of some of the models is not the same thing.

But, back to your entirely two sided conversation lol

Toys4RJill

Its actually pretty significant as the UAW contract will end in 2020 sometime. GM needs to negotiate a new contract with UAW and keeping it open or not will be a bargaining chip. Hold or delaying the closure, not much difference IMO.