Striking CAMI employees feel optimistic with union reps back at the table

Knowing that union officials are back at the table with GM Canada has refuelled the atmosphere outside the CAMI automotive plant in Ingersoll, where roughly 2,500 employees are on strike.

“Everybody was ecstatic,” said Denise Harrison, when workers walking the picket lines got the news late Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s a stepping stone. It’s something to start on.”

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According to an update on Unifor Local 88’s website, GM Canada responded to a deal put on the table on Sunday. “Some progress has been made,” it reads. “Therefore, the Master Bargaining Committee, along with our National Representatives, will be moving back into the hotel to continue talks.”

The main sticking points are job security, wages, and benefits.

“It’s very simple,” said picket captain Bob Scott.

“There’s a lot of corporate greed going on, it hasn’t changed. These companies are making huge money, and it was to start trickling down to the people.”

Going into day ten of the strike, Unifor Local 88’s employment and equity rep Nicole Lambert described a sense of positivity from the picket lines.

“There’s a powerful feel in the air, that puts goosebumps on your skin,” said.

But there’s worry, too.

“We’re a little afraid. The last contract that didn’t go through, they did go back the tables and parted. I’m afraid if they part this time… people are going to be overwhelmed.”

Both she and her husband work at the CAMI plant. Last weekend, she said he looked for a job.

“We were worried,” said Lambert.

“We can probably sell our place here, God forbid. We’ve talked about doing it in a few years anyways, but didn’t really want to do it sooner.”

The union wants General Motors to declare the plant a lead producer of the Equinox after losing production of the GMC Terrain to a Mexican plant, where it pays workers $2 an hour.

This is the first strike at a GM-owned plant in Canada in over 20 years.