After days of protest and blockades, the CAW has finally accepted the fate of its doomed Oshawa, Ontario truck plant. Just weeks after General Motors inked a deal with the CAW pledging to keep the Oshawa plant open until 2011, GM announced that it would be shuttering the plant in 2009, sparking a blockade that lasted 12 days.
The CAW didn’t go down without a fight, but the Canadian union says it has now come to terms with the reality of the situation. “Are we accepting it? Eventually, if someone keeps hitting you over the head with a sledgehammer, you’re going to wake up,” Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, told Automotive News.
2,600 union workers are expected to lose their jobs when the plant finally closes.
Hargrove told the union that it remains possible that GM could add another line to its Oshawa car plant, although that scenario is highly unlikely at this point.
Although the situation is dire for GM’s Canadian employees, some are still holding out hope that GM will eventually reopen its Oshawa truck plant, possibly as a new car factory. “Their business is changing every month … so we’re hoping that over the next year or two… things will turn around somewhat,” said Chris Buckley, president of CAW Local 222.
