By Sam Houpt
Toronto, Ontario — September 17, 2019 — After 49,000 UAW workers went on strike against GM in the U.S. on Monday, GM Canada states that it is diligently watching the situation of its U.S. counterpart to see if it could set any precedent in Canadian territories.
If Canadian GM workers do walkout, it could leave the OEM bereft of 5,700 employees–at least until negotiations were concluded.
Ontario alone has three GM plants, but because of integration in the supply chain, Canadian locations — affected heavily by the U.S. and Mexico — may begin to suffer from a shortage of parts. For example, 80 percent of engines made in St. Catherines, ON are designed for U.S.-assembled vehicles
One plant in Ingersoll, ON even estimates they will have to stop all operations within the next 10 days. Because of the predicted part shortage, Unifor, a union representing Canadian GM workers, foresees St. Catherine workers may see layoffs in the next week.
Unifor, which represents 315,000 Canadian workers, took the side of the American union.
“Unifor supports the United Auto Workers (UAW) in negotiations for a fair contract settlement with General Motors (GM),” the union wrote in a statement on Sunday. Unifor said negotiations with GM will begin next year, revealing “collective agreements between Unifor, representing Canadian GM workers, and General Motors will expire in September 2020 and September 2021.”
GM has yet to say how many days it can rely on reserve parts, but GM Canada said it will continue to monitor the strike as a whole.
