mmarshall

Well, that was my point. GM can "win" on paper, with a board ruling supporting it.....but it means little, if anything, in real life. If everybody at the plant calls in sick at once, legally, that is not a strike, and auto-assembly-line work is of a complex enough nature that GM can't simply fire all of the sick-ins and replace them with new employees.....you can't train people like that overnight. UNIFOR's got a potential ace up their sleeve, if they are only smart enough to use it.

Toys4RJill

geko29

In the end, it won't matter a lick. You keep bringing up Silverado production, as if the workers can "hit GM where it hurts". However, GM is currently producing the Silverado at four plants in three countries. Oshawa in particular is producing the OLD model (K2), which is being sunsetted. There are two other plants also producing this same model in Michigan and Mexico, which can presumably keep up with the waning demand as the new (T1) model has now hit the market in force. That new model is made in Indiana and Mexico. Demand is increasing for one variant and decreasing for the other. Care to guess which is which?

Toys4RJill

mmarshall

No offense, but you're (apparently) assuming that UNIFOR is a bunch of morons. They would not have wasted their time and efforts calling a strike if it would not have made a difference. Jerry Dias has a job to do...to look out for the interest of his workers, and to resist company actions when it threatens those interests. If it means a strike, so be it.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

FCA just announced a $4.5 billion worth of investments to produce the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer 3 row SUV that has electric variants and upgrade other plants

https://jalopnik.com/fca-will-spend-...s-l-1832903198

Toys4RJill

geko29

I don't think they're stupid, they're using the limited options they have available to them. Doing nothing would not sit well with their constituents/members, and presumably UNIFOR would like to continue to exist even after the Oshawa plant does not.

That doesn't mean they'll be effective. You keep acting as though they have more leverage than they do, as if these actions have a massive effect on GM's profitability. This plant produces vehicles that have already been or are in the process of being phased out. That includes the pickup trucks. The new generation Silverado and Sierra--which are NOT built at this plant--are in full production, and demand for the old ones that this plant DOES produce is plummeting by the day (likely just filling out existing fleet orders at this point). Additionally, that old model is still being produced at two OTHER plants. It is almost certain that those two plants, in Flint, MI and Guanajuato, Mexico, can absorb the meagre 5,000 units/month that the Oshawa plant was producing last year, if that volume is even still necessary.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

no offense, but this dias character does appear to be a moron.

he's also making a lot of noise but has no cards to play. the plant will close, he will retire rich, and life will go on, even though the economic impact will be real and painful, to the people he 'mis'represented for years...

Toys4RJill

Dias collects $350K from what I have seen in the comments. He has to say something I guess, what should he do? . The only real card he can play is he can get sales to be lowered to some point and have the details at retail start to ***** and moan.

mmarshall

I agree that he won't be sleeping on the grates when he retires, but, IMO, at least, he will have earned it. Unlike some corrupt Union leaders (some of whom even have ties to organized crime and the mob), Dias appears to take his job seriously and have a genuine concern for the workers he represents.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

it's all show, so he can tell his union comrades 'hey, i tried, and justified my big union salary and pension' when in fact, perhaps he should have focused on WHY GM is closing the plant, and worked more constructively over previous years, to make the plant more valuable.

unions like status quo... management likes and needs forward movement, hence the tension.

Toys4RJill

tex2670

I don't mean the recipients. But there are plenty of incentives that are given to companies that are never made up in the tax revenue that the government gets back in "winning" the site. You should go back and read all the articles when Amazon was seeking bidders for its HQ2.

MattyG

Dias only makes $350K? To lead a union that spans multiple industries and not just the auto sector? Less than a dollar per represented worker? And he hasn't been run out of office by the peasants apparently? Shocking.

No mention of the outsourcing, golden parachute-bad decision-making executives and their private jets who drove GM into one bankruptcy, made crappy products for decades? Not so shocking on this particular forum and its ideology.