Officials with the union representing nearly 3,000 striking workers at GM Canada’s CAMI assembly plant said Wednesday they plan to formally reach out to the automaker with the intention of continuing collective agreement talks.
The update comes three days after workers at the Ingersoll, Ont. facility walked off the job late Sunday night after negotiators for Unifor Local 88 and GM failed to agree on a new collective agreement. It’s the first strike at a GM-owned plant in Canada in over two decades.
While formal contract talks have yet to be scheduled, communication between the two parties has occurred through text message and telephone in the days since the walkout, though no common ground has been reached on the main issues, said Unifor Local 88 President Dan Borthwick in an update posted to the union’s website.
“We have been exchanging a couple of ideas, concepts, just to keep the lines of communication going and hopefully chip away and try and get closer to a result,” said Unifor Local 88 Chair Mike Van Boekel in an interview with AM980.
Van Boekel said he and Borthwick traveled to Toronto on Tuesday night to meet with Unifor National President Jerry Dias and his team to mull over different ideas and concepts. He says Unifor has committed to providing any resources needed during the strike.
“[We] came back this afternoon and met with our entire bargaining team and we laid out some new ideas, and we are going to reach out to the company and see if we can get them back to the table in the near future,” Van Boekel said.
The union says GM has failed in negotiations to address a key job security issue at the plant. It says it wants the automaker to declare the Ingersoll plant a lead producer of the Chevrolet Equinox, after the facility lost production of the GMC Terrain earlier this year to a Mexican plant, resulting in 600 layoffs.
LISTEN: Unifor president Jerry Dias talks strike at GM Canada’s CAMI Ingersoll plant
When talks resume, the union says it will stay strong on the issue of job security, as well as economics and contract language.
“I think we’ve got some very good ideas,” Van Boekel said. “We understand there’s a lot of people out of work and it’s spreading, so there’s a responsibility there, but at the same time, we know what we want, we know what we need.”
“We’re just trying to chip off a little bit and hopefully it’s enough to entice them to come back to the table and we can get this done — or at least get it started so we can get the ball rolling again.”
The union says it has received plenty of support from union members, the community, labour groups, other Unifor locals, and other affiliated unions.
Van Boekel said local businesses have been dropping off doughnuts on the picket line, and the local Independent grocery store has been providing free water, ice, apples, and other items for striking workers.
“We’re holding together very well, the line’s fantastic,” he said. “We do realize it’s early too and it will get tougher as the line goes on, but we’re not here to bow down. We just want a piece of the pie. We want our product to stay in Canada.”
Asked how long he expected the strike to go on for, Van Boekel said it would go on until the automaker committed to keeping Equinox production at the plant.
– With files from Liny Lamberink, and Jaclyn Carbone
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