Picketers stationed outside an entrance to the GMC CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont. are photographed on Sept 18 2017. The Chevrolet Equinox is assembled at the south western Ontario plant.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Unifor is digging in for a long strike against General Motors Co. at the auto maker's Cami assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., saying the company refuses to agree to contract language that would provide job security for workers.
A meeting with senior GM officials on Thursday and conversations with GM negotiators on the weekend did not lead to any progress on the issue of job security, Unifor president Jerry Dias said Sunday.
"The reality is we're no closer today than we were even when we went out on strike," Mr. Dias said as Unifor members prepared for a rally at the plant on Sunday morning. About 2,500 workers went on strike Sept. 17. The strike was set to enter its third week Sunday evening.
"There's no meaningful dialogue happening on the big issue, which is job security," Mr. Dias said. "This is going nowhere fast."
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Workers at Cami assemble the Chevrolet Equinox crossover utility vehicle, GM's entrant in one of the hottest segments of the market in Canada and the United States. It's also one of GM's best-selling vehicles in both countries.
Job security arose as an issue earlier this year when GM said it would shift production of the Equinox's GMC twin, the Terrain, to Mexico, leading to the elimination of 600 jobs.
The actual shift of the Terrain took place in July, just as negotiations on a new contract began.
The Equinox is also assembled in Mexico – at plants in Ramos Arizpe and San Luis Potosi – leading to the union's position during contract talks that Cami be designated as the lead plant for the Equinox.
That would ensure that the plant would be the first to receive new investment when it comes time to retool for a new generation of the vehicle and would be the last plant to cut production if sales slide.
"This is really about the fact that they have two assembly plants in Mexico where they pay people nothing, and they are not going to put any restrictions in place for future [production] volume, so they can move it," Mr. Dias said.
GM invested more than $500-million in the plant last year to prepare it to make the current generation of the Equinox. That investment should secure the future of the plant through to the mid-2020s, analysts believe.
One industry source said, however, that GM is worried that a new crossover, the Chevrolet Blazer, which is slightly bigger than Equinox, will cut into sales of the older vehicle, so it doesn't want its hands tied by labour agreements.
"They want to keep their options open," Mr. Dias said. "We're not fools; we understand their option is Mexico and $3-an-hour jobs."
He said GM committed in a contract signed with Unifor last year that it invest at plants in Oshawa, Ont., and St. Catharines, Ont. GM also committed to the United Auto Workers union that it would continue to assemble the Chevrolet Cruze in Lordstown, Ohio, he said.
"This thing's going to go on a for a while, there's no question in my mind," Mr. Dias said, referring to the strike. "There's too much at stake."
Cami has been operating three shifts a day, six days a week for several years amid strong demand for the vehicle and growth in the crossover segment.
Workers built more than 300,000 vehicles at Cami in 2016, but production was expected to fall to about 250,000 even before the strike.
Equinox sales soared 85 per cent in the U.S. market in August.
The strike has led to layoffs at the GM plant in St. Catharines, which makes transmissions for Cami, and has affected a GM plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., that supplies Equinox engines.
Magna International Inc., which supplies about $1,900 (U.S.) worth of parts to Cami for the Equinox, including the seats, has stopped shipping components to the plant.
GM's policy is not to comment on negotiations.