Worry and loathing in Oshawa, Ont.
Hello, I report reside for CBC Information Community. There’s lots of anxiousness, but additionally defiance, the place I’m in Oshawa, Ont., house to a sprawling Common Motors plant.
All morning, staff have been streaming into the union corridor for an emergency assembly with native union reps, hugging and sporting T-shirts with the slogan “elbows up.”
Jeff Grey, Unifor Native 222 president, was born and raised right here in Oshawa and has a protracted historical past with GM and the auto trade, relationship again to his great-grandfather.
“Right here in Canada, these are our jobs. And we’re not going to allow them to go anyplace,” stated Grey, who has labored on the GM plant for 21 years.
“We’re able to battle. Finish of story, not one piece of apparatus is leaving Ontario,” stated Grey.
We’ve spoken to different individuals right here who’re linked to the GM plant, together with Invoice McCollom who works for a corporation known as Lear. They make the seats for the GM vehicles.
“In the event that they go down, we’re down — 350 individuals in our plant which can be out of a job instantly,” McCollom informed me.
It is simply a sign of the trickle-down results of the auto trade and the way interconnected the trade is to the native economic system.
We’re anticipating a information convention with Unifor nationwide president Lana Payne round midday.
Source link