Unifor Demands GM Job Pledge for CAMI Plant Workers

Canada’s Unifor labor union has invited General Motors Co. to resume contract negotiations—but only if GM guarantees jobs at the company’s CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont.

About 2,500 of Unifor’s members walked out at the factory on Sept. 17 over job security demands, marking the first union strike at a Canadian car plant in 21 years.

Unifor wants GM to designate CAMI as its lead plant for the Equinox. The crossover is GM’s most popular model in North America after the Chevrolet Silverado large pickup truck.

The CAMI plant was GM’s sole source for the Equinox until April. That’s when the company also began making the vehicle in Ramos Arizpe and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. At the same time, GM shifted production of the GMC Terrain, a rebadged version of the Equinox, from CAMI to Mexico. The move cut 600 jobs at the Canadian factory, which Infor says it one of GM’s most productive anywhere.

Meanwhile, GM says the strike has prompted it to reduce output at powertrain plants in Canada and the U.S. The company has warned Unifor that the union’s 300 members at a transmission plant in St. Catharines, Ont., will be laid off temporarily on Friday if a labor agreement at CAMI isn’t reached by then.