GM Canada and CAW Prepared for Long Strike

10/10/96

Reuters has reported that GM Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers union remain at odds over outsourcing, wages, and work rules and that both sides are prepared for a long strike. As of midnight on October 9, the last 5,000 of the CAW's GM workers were expected to join 21,000 of their already striking colleagues on the picket line, effectively shutting down all of GM Canada's operations.

The strike started when negotiations over a new contract broke down around the primary issue of outsourcing. GM Canada is fighting with the union to be able to shift work away union workers to outside, usually non-union companies. The practice is expected to cut 5,500 union jobs in Canada. The CAW wants GM to accept contract language that Chrysler Canada has already agreed to. That language would stop GM from shutting down plants that are profitable.

The standoff between the CAW and GM began on October 3, and the CAW says that its strike fund will support workers for 12 weeks, possibly stretching to 16 weeks if new credit is arranged. The CAW also has set a special meeting for Oct. 18 to raise funds from all its 210,000 members across Canada.

When the strike went into its sixth day on Tuesday, GM plants in the United States were running short of some components made by Canadian Auto Workers, and GM was sending US workers home.

Although some analysts have predicted that the world's richest automaker will try to wait out the strike, hoping to deplete the union's strike fund, CAW President Buzz Hargrove has said, "GM can't out wait us. We're not going anywhere."

Other analysts have said that GM Canada will ride the strike out until its parent company in Detroit has reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.

Denis Desrosier, president of Desrosier Automotive Consultants Inc., says that a brief strike in Canada would be cheaper for GM than a UAW settlement based on what Hargrove wants for CAW workers. If GM settled with the CAW first, it would encourage the UAW to seek a similar contract.

"They (GM) are not about to give Canada (workers) a relatively generous deal while they are negotiating in the U.S.," said Desrosier.

Desrosier said the CAW probably will get the deal it wants after UAW President Stephen Yokich settles with GM in the United States: "I guarantee you Buzz (Hargrove) is going to be a winner, but it's going to come after the (United) States."

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel