Protest at GM moves to higher gear.

This is from the Star.
GM obviously thinks that it is in a position of strength vis-a-vis the unions. The bad faith move to close a plant within a few weeks after a contract was signed in which the union gave many concessions in order to keep the plant open is meant to show that the company can do whatever it wants, in fact mocking the whole contract. Unless the union wants to lose all credibility it will be necessary to show that GM cannot do this without serious damage to its bottom line. That is all that matters to GM.


Protest at GM moves to higher gear TheStar.com - GTA - Protest at GM moves to higher gear
June 08, 2008 Paola LoriggioStaff Reporter
General Motors employees yesterday ramped up their protest efforts outside the automaker's truck and car plants in Oshawa, but union representatives say it's only the beginning.
"We've got all kinds of things up our sleeves," said Keith Osborne, union chair for GM's Oshawa complex, though he wouldn't comment on future plans for fear of tipping off the company.
Early yesterday morning, members of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 222, which represents the Oshawa workers, staged a three-hour motorcade through the truck and car plants to show GM executives they mean business.
The union set up a blockade there Wednesday after the company announced it would close the truck plant and three assembly operations in the U.S. and Mexico within two years. The closing in Oshawa would end more than 2,000 plant jobs and several thousand others at parts suppliers.
"This is about all of us – all our jobs, all our community," CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley told hundreds of cheering union workers as he announced plans for the motorcade, described as "phase two" of the rally.
The slow-moving motorcade cost each plant about 45 minutes in production by cutting off their supply of parts, Osborne said yesterday afternoon.
Osborne wouldn't rule out the possibility of job action, should other legal recourses fail.