Autoworkers in the fight of their lives
by Mick S
Ontario – An estimated 5000-7000 jobs were lost in the Ontario auto industry in the last couple of months as General Motors (GM) announced that it will close its flagship Oshawa truck plant in 2009 and auto-parts companies like Progressive Moulded Products and Magna followed suit shortly afterwards. According to the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW), the Canadian auto industry including both assembly and parts has lost a total of nearly 30,000 jobs since 2001.
This comes hot on the heals of a controversial no-strike agreement between the CAW and auto-parts giant Magna Inc. as well as early concessionary contract agreements between the CAW and the big three auto-manufacturers: GM, Ford and Chrysler.
Upon news of the Oshawa truck plant closing, hundreds of CAW members responded by setting up a blockade of GM’s corporate offices for two weeks before getting slapped with an injunction and a lawsuit by GM. Union leaders complied, urging their members to “stay tuned,” but ruled out any workplace or strike action. Over one month later there has been no signs of any resumption of any protests.
“At this point, we’re not going to pull our workforce out of the plants,” CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley stated on June 16th, “We understand the auto industry is not very healthy at this time and we’re not going to put our members’ jobs at risk.”
One has to question if the announcement that GM was slashing tens of thousands of jobs in a panicked effort to stem GM’s hemorrhaging of money at a rate of $3 billion a quarter doesn’t already put jobs at risk.
On July 7, only a few days after learning that their employer Progressive Moulded Products had filed for bankruptcy and closed down their 11 Toronto area plants, a large group of angry non-union workers followed the Oshawa lead and set up a picket line to try and pressure for severance pay. While this action started off strong with hundreds of workers out on the picket line, it faded after a couple of weeks as a protocol was agreed to, likely at the advice of CAW leadership that intervened, that saw trucks allowed through the picket line at timed intervals until all tools and equipment were systematically removed. With this crucial leverage gone, the pickets became largely symbolic and it is unlikely that workers will receive any reasonable compensation.
While the pickets in Oshawa and then Toronto show the potential strength of workers to stand up and resist these attacks, they have not been enough. Wildcat strikes, plant occupations and above all organizing with co-workers is required should autoworkers stand up against the bosses and defend jobs. It won’t be easy, but nobody else is in the position to do it. If autoworkers do not respond strongly, even radically, to this blatant attack on their livelihoods, it is likely that these trends will continue in both Canada and the USA.