TORONTO, Ontario - The last of the 26,000 General Motors Corp. unionized workers in Canada walked off their jobs the evening of October 9, hours before a strike deadline expired. With Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) members now walking the picket lines at plants in Woodstock, London, and Windsor, Ontario, all of the carmaker's assembly and parts plants in Canada are at a standstill.

"We didn't leave early, we're one week late," a striker at the transmission plant in Windsor told Militant reporters. "They want to get rid of 5,000 people," another picketer said, adding that GM has already cut 12,000 jobs in Canada in the last decade.

Some 5,300 workers at the GM engine plant in St. Catherines, Ontario, walked off the job October 6. They joined 13,500 union members at GM's Oshawa plant in this province and 1,500 at Ste. Thérese, Quebec, who struck the company October 2.

While most of the engines manufactured at St. Catherines are shipped to Oshawa, a GM spokesperson said the company's U.S. operations are affected. The shutdown at the last four facilities could affect GM's production throughout North America.

The CAW had reached an agreement with Chrysler Canada Ltd. in mid-September. General Motors was the union's next target for a settlement.

The key issue at GM is outsourcing -cutting jobs by sending work to outside suppliers that pay lower wages and often are non-union. Of the Big Three auto makers - General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler - GM currently outsources 54 percent of vehicle parts production. Chrysler outsources 71 percent, and Ford 68 percent. GM's aim is to catch up in order to remain competitive and boost sagging profit rates.

The auto giant sent a letter directly to its employees appealing for understanding of the "sorry plight of a company which is being forced to outsource its labor in order to stay alive." However, sympathy for the company is scarce among workers. GM made record profits last year.

"The issue is corporate greed," said Charles Gregorcic who has worked at the Oshawa plant for 23 years. "This contracting out means lower wages for auto workers. It has to be stopped." Meanwhile, on the picket lines workers are wearing buttons reading, "Stop Outsourcing. For Job Security." In addition to outsourcing, GM also has plans to sell or shut down a number of plants, which would result in cutting an additional 5,500 jobs.

In the recent CAW contract with Chrysler, ratified September 17 by a vote of 85 percent in favor, workers won 10 more paid days off. One GM picketer said CAW members had won the same provision in their contract negotiations three years ago. Instead of resulting in the creation of a single new job as many CAW members hoped for, he said, the company made up the added holiday time by having workers doing double shifts. GM Oshawa has not hired off the street since 1985. The last hiring was in 1990 from a van plant in Scarborough that GM shut down.

"They put a midnight shift on but we're still working overtime during the week and Saturdays," said Dianne, another picketer. "They need to hire more people."

"They have to hire young people," another worker said, discussing speed-up. "I'm in my 40s and I just can't do what I could do when I was 20 years old."

Describing the situation on the plant floor, a third picketer explained, "You don't have time to scratch your nose. We do 68-70 cars an hour. I have to do a job in 45 seconds. They're working us to the ground. I've been here 17 and a half years. I don't think I'm going to last 25."

Most picketers agreed that the strike may be long. "It maybe one of the longest in GM's history," one said. The last time the CAW struck GM was in 1984, lasting 14 days. Many workers sense that the company is ready for a major confrontation. GM will also have the aid of the Ontario government, which has repealed anti-scab legislation.

The company turned a 17-day strike by parts plant workers in Dayton, Ohio, last March into a de-facto lockout that idled assembly plants throughout North America. Well prepared for that battle in the United States, GM did not back off from making further inroads on outsourcing.

Many CAW members on the picket lines here are getting ready for a fight as well. "GM wouldn't dare use scabs," said one worker. "They wouldn't dare because if they did, they know they'd have an all out war on their hands."

Many drivers honked their horns as they went by the Ste. Catherines plant showing solidarity with the strikers. One show of support came from a school bus passing by. As the bus driver honked the horn all the kids on the bus cheered. A statement by Charlie Gregorcic summed up the sentiment on the picket line. "This strike is not just for us," he said, "it's for our kids and the next generation."

Mitra Sharma is a member of CAW Local 262 at United Auto Parts in the Toronto area.  
 
 
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