SDA regular commenter, David Murrell, shared an interesting tip about what American auto workers are saying about General Motors moving production from Oshawa to Indiana:
Rich LeTourneau is blunt as he sets down his beer on the union hall bar, located just a stone’s throw away from the General Motors plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. where he’s put in 38 years.
I respect Canadian unions, I respect the Mexican union. We didn’t raise our hand and say … ‘I’ll take what you guys got.’ That decision was made way above our head, he told CBC News.
But when the company comes to me to increase volume, I’m not gonna tell them no, either, because it’s job security for my people, and hell, if I can corner the market, I will.
LeTourneau is the bargaining chairman at United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2209, which represents GM workers in Fort Wayne. This is where GM is adding 250 temporary jobs to build Chevrolet Silverados — work that has also been happening in Oshawa, Ont. but is being scaled back.
The only reason GM et al were located in Canada at all was because of generous government subsidies and obnoxious Canadian tariffs. That is all over now.
Mr Los …. u are full of poo poo de ka ka …. the history of auto manufacturing in Canuckistan is a little more complicated than your midwit summary.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/automotive-industry
Are you a unionized butthurt victim of the suicidal Canadian socialist mindset?
I suspect he’s just a stickler for detail. Meanwhile, watch for my new band, Butthurt Victims Union.
International trade unions were always such an inherently stupid notion. Push comes to shove, a country’s workers should always back opportunities for their country’s workers to obtain work. Nationalism always trumps in the end; the only surprising thing is that my people didn’t become so more quickly and harder. They’ve been amazingly patient and long suffering; may they now have at least a little sunshine after so many years of darkness!
Seems like the people of Oshawa are going to find out about the experiences of Americans 30 years ago. Have fun with it.
The UAW’s lack of sympathy comes from Buzz Hargrove’s separation to form the CAW. The CAW then joined other unions in Kanada to make UNIFOR.
Would UAW act differently if Windsor stayed with them? We’ll never know.
I am rooting for the asteroid when it comes to the UAW vs CAW. They are all toxic, lazy and pathological to a robust sustainable economy not to mention freedom to work anywhere you want.
No, because the locals generally don’t care too much for the other locals when it comes to getting jobs for their members.
They will pay lip service to it, at the national meetings, but when it comes down to it, the leadership of the locals gets elected by the local members, not the other locals.
This is the second time GM proposed moving assembly from Oshawa to USA. This time it will happen, GM wants Trump’s favour.
Ontario politicians and union leaders going back as far as Harris – McGuinty and Wynne made everything much worse – forgot that they were competing with a number of business friendly states including Michigan, Ohio, etc. and all of the southern states.
Ontario stopped being business friendly with high energy prices, favourable union decisions, high taxes, etc, and then only stayed in Canada with subsidies from the Federal and Provincial Gov’t. (see Ford)
A proof point of Canada’s non competitive business environment is the German car manufacturers, when deciding on NA manufacturing locations, all chose southern USA. I do not recall any discussion or thought by the Germans that Canada was a consideraton.
The brand new Gordie Howe bridge, paid for by Canada, might just be a lot less busy.