Canadian Auto Workers Take Fight to Detroit

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8717

Could a strike be on the table in Canada where GM workers are fighting an announced plant closure? Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove plans to meet with GM's leadership in Detroit today and said a county-wide strike is definitely on the table. The union says that in an agreement reached with the company in May it was agreed that an Oshawa Ontario manufacturing plant would remain open until at least 2011. GM announced plans to close that plant on Tuesday. Four plants are being closed throughout Canada and the United States as jobs are shifted to Mexico. Many Mexican auto unions have agreed to a two-tier wage system with automakers that pay new hires the equivalent of $4.50 U.S. dollars per hour on average.

Ford announced on Thursday that the company plans to cut 15 percent of salaried related costs in North America. Ford has 24,300 salaried employees throughout the continent.