Five GM plants are scheduled to be closed during this calendar year and the union representing the autoworkers wants a boycott.
Recent announcements from GM to close plants in the US and Canada while not closing plants in Mexico have been met with a call to action. This action includes a boycott on the purchase of GM cars that are made in Mexico, which is the most recent tactic in the campaign to bring the automaker back to the bargaining table and begin talks of keeping the plant in Oshawa open.
Affecting the Population of the Area
GM has already announced that the Oshawa plant will be closed by the end of this year but Unifor, the union that represents these workers, wants GM to continue production at least until September of 2020. This is the time when the current contract expires and the goal is to secure the future of the plant that could be retooled and used to build some of the vehicles that GM will offer in the future. Currently, this closure will affect 2,983 assembly-line jobs in Oshawa alone, which is a significant detriment to the area.
How Will a Boycott Help the Workers?
Currently, more than 650,000 of the GM vehicles that are produced in Mexico are sold in Canada and the US. This represents nearly $20 billion in annual sales which could be a significant loss if a boycott were to be successful. Certainly, you would expect workers in the US that are being relocated or losing their jobs due to the plants being closed to support a boycott of vehicles that are made in Mexico in order to gain the attention of the leaders of GM.
The Effects Could be Widespread
If a boycott is successful, several auto parts companies that support the production in Mexico could be affected as well. There are more than sixty Ontario-based auto parts companies that ship parts to the GM plants in Mexico to be added to these vehicles. This means the boycott could have a widespread effect on the area and cause problems for GM and its suppliers. The idea is to get the attention of the leadership of GM and pus them to continue the production of vehicles in the Oshawa plant, at least until the current contract expires.
A Strike Could be in the Works
Although Unifor hasn’t moved to a strike of the workers at the Oshawa plant just yet, this is certainly an action that’s being considered if the boycott doesn’t work at all. This would be a severe action that would slow the production of the largest automaker in the world. The questions remain as to whether or not GM is going to respond in a positive way or we’re going to see the five plants closed this year without any of the Mexican production changing at all. This situation is getting ugly and will need to be resolved soon.
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