A Unifor investigation into a complaint against Local 222 Financial Secretary, Rob Romano has determined that Romano “engaged in harassment and violence. As such, the complaint is substantiated.”
When this incident occurred on April 7, 2022 word spread rapidly that a retiree had been punched in the chest at a union meeting by the Local’s Financial Secretary. Many members were shocked. However, the administration of the Local denied the story and tried to vilify the victim instead. Their insistence that Rob Romano had been found innocent created uncertainty amongst the membership. However, now that Unifor’s investigation has finally been completed, the truth can be told – Rob Romano did disrupt a union meeting and did indeed push and punch a retired member.
The retiree, Tony Leah, filed a complaint under the Unifor Harassment Policy right after the incident happened, as well as submitting a complaint to the Durham Region Police Service. After investigation, the Durham police arrested Romano and charged him with the criminal offense of assault, however the charge was later withdrawn before trial by the Deputy Crown Attorney. Meanwhile, Unifor assigned the complaint to a human rights Investigator. The report of the Investigator is damning in it’s assessment of Romano’s behaviour.
The incident occurred at a Local 222 general membership meeting on April 7, 2022. Although there was no quorum for a regular meeting, an orderly information meeting was taking place, as is provided for in the Local By-Laws. The Local President gave a report, and was taking questions. Apparently, Romano was determined to prevent the meeting from continuing, and was prepared to go to any lengths to disrupt it. This is how the Investigator’s report describes what happened next, referring to Rob Romano as “the Respondent” and Tony Leah as “the Complainant”:
The evidence supports that the Respondent engaged in violence while at a Unifor Local 222 union meeting on April 7, 2022. The Respondent quickly and aggressively walked over to the microphone where a member was speaking and yelled about there being no quorum and no meeting. The Respondent grabbed the microphone from the stand and subsequently first pushed the Complainant and, more likely than not, punched the Complainant in the chest as he exited the hall. These incidents reasonably represent acts of violence.
The report also has some criticism directed towards the Complainant, Tony Leah, who confronted Romano “while urging him to return the microphone so the member could finish speaking.” Nevertheless, the report states that Leah’s action “does not justify being subsequently pushed or punched by the Respondent.”
The conclusion of the report is clear:
In conclusion, the findings support that the Respondent engaged in behaviours that are tantamount to harassment and violence. This represents a violation of the Unifor Harassment Policy and Unifor Harassment Policy for Union Events.
All Local 222 members should be concerned that an elected official of the Local tried to prevent an orderly meeting from continuing, and tried to prevent the sister who was speaking from being heard. This was an outrageous attempt to prevent free speech and interfere with the union membership’s right to hear information, discuss issues, and hold the leadership to account.
The Local 222 membership should have a right to know what happened, and what were the results of the investigation. This is completely consistent with the commitment to “accountability and transparency” in the Unifor Constitution.
After the assault charge against Romano was withdrawn, the Local President, Jeff Gray, took the unprecedented step of asking the Local Executive Board and the Local Retired Workers Chapter to reimburse Romano for his legal bills. This was done even though it was known that the incident was still under investigation by the national union. Gray claimed that Romano had been found “innocent”, but of course the assault charge was never heard in court, so he was never found either innocent or guilty of the that charge. But his behaviour at the meeting was investigated by Unifor, and we now know that the Unifor investigation DID find that he had “engaged in harassment and violence” against a retired member. Nevertheless, the Local President’s supporters on the Local Executive Board voted (although not unanimously) to give Romano $4520 from Local Union Funds. Gray also spoke at a Retired Workers Chapter meeting to urge that the Retirees’ funds be used to reimburse Romano for the other half of his legal bill. Unsurprisingly, there was a large turnout at that Retiree Chapter meeting of supporters of Romano and Jeff Gray, and they narrowly passed the motion.
On February 5, 2024 the Retired Workers Chapter was informed of the results of the Unifor Investigation Report and the findings of Romano’s violations of Unifor’s Harassment Policy. There was vigorous discussion of the issue, and Brother Chris White made the following motion:
I move that the following letter be sent to Rob Romano:
Brother Romano,
On December 5, 2022 a motion was passed at the Retired Workers Chapter meeting to pay half of your legal bill, because it was claimed that you had been found “innocent” of assaulting a retired member.
The National Union has now concluded an extensive and lengthy investigation into charges of violence you committed at the Unifor Local 222 General Membership Meeting on April 7, 2022.
The findings of the Unifor investigation “support that the Respondent [you] engaged in behaviours that are tantamount to harassment and violence. This represents a violation of the Unifor Harassment Policy and Unifor Harassment Policy for Union Events.”
We therefore request that all monies ($4,520) paid to you by Local 222 Retirees Chapter be returned in a timely manner.
There seemed to be support for this motion, but Les MacDonald acted to prevent the members present from making the decision. He made a motion of referral to the Retiree Chapter Executive Board. When Brother MacDonald’s motion was passed it meant that the membership at that meeting could no longer vote on sending the letter. It will now be up to the Retiree Executive to decide on whether or not to support sending a letter to Romano asking him to return the Chapter’s money.
If you have an opinion on whether or not Romano should repay the retirees – please contact any member of the Retiree’s Executive before their meeting on Monday, February 26 to let them know what you would like them to do.
Here are the current members of the Local 222 Retired Workers Chapter Executive: Lyle Hargrove, Doug Sanders, Les MacDonald, Deb Korson, Mike Saunders, Chris White, Lance Livingstone, Don Revoy, Paul Herrington.
The Taylor Report interviewed Tony Leah on March 28, 2022
Listen on Soundcloud or read the transcript (below):
Phil Taylor follows up on the Jerry Dias Affair with Tony Leah, Political Action Committee Chair of Unifor Local 222 in Oshawa.
According to Leah, Unifor’s “transparency” about the Dias affair has been grudging at best. In fact many important questions remain unanswered, such as:
– Who is Unifor’s “independent” investigator?
– What is the name of the company that gave Dias $50,000 after he promoted their Covid-19 test kits to corporations that bargain with Unifor?
– Why did it take 6 days for Dias’ assistant, Chris MacDonald, to turn over to Unifor’s Secretary-Treasurer the $25,000 in cash that Dias gave him? What discussions occurred between MacDonald, Scott Doherty (another assistant to Dias) and Unifor Ontario Director Naureen Rizvi during those 6 days?
– Did Dias offer anything to the employers who purchased the test kits? Was there a quid pro quo?
Leah noted that Chrysler officials explained that their payoffs to UAW officials in the US were motivated by a desire to secure concessions by keeping those officials “fat, dumb, and happy.” The auto companies have also benefited from concessions and two-tier contracts in Canada. GM was able to shut down vehicle assembly in Oshawa in 2019 and start up again last year with an entirely new workforce earning the much lower starting rate.
Respected publisher, author and commentator Robin Philpot reported on the bizarre spectacle of a union leader asking to have a street in Oshawa named after himself. Philpot, the publisher of Baraka Books, presented the fascinating story to the Francophone audience of his show on Montreal community radio station CKVL on November 10, 2021.
You can listen to the French audio of this episode of “Le pied à Papineau” at this link:
Philpot finds the fitting literary reference for the narcissism of Jerry Dias – the La Fontaine fable of The Frog and the Ox. In the fable, the frog keeps trying to make himself look larger than he is, in a vain attempt to be seen as big and powerful as the ox. The only result, however, is that he puffs himself up until he explodes. As Philpot says, it is clear Jerry Dias hasn’t read the fable.
Here is the English translation of the description of the radio broadcast, followed by the French. The English translation is by DeepL Translate (Google Translate provides a somewhat different and more comical translation).
Jerry Dias, president of UNIFOR, will not see a street named after him in Oshawa. The members of UNIFOR Local 222 don’t want to hear about it and neither does the Oshawa City Council, which voted 9-2 against the proposal.
It’s a funny story if ever there was one, which shows that Jerry hasn’t read Lafontaine’s fable of the frog and the ox.
Basically, it’s the story of a unionist’s all-consuming ambition to be a working class hero while making out with Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau.
Unifor is expelled from the Canadian Labour Congress and all provincial federations of labour, EXCEPT the FTQ, which has sovereignty-association status within the labour movement. Excluded for raiding other unions instead of organizing non-unionized workers.
Despite the great history of the UAW (United Auto Workers), which became the CAW (Canadian Auto Workers) before becoming UNIFOR, the Canadian leadership of UNIFOR seems to have turned its back on the working class and on social democracy for whatever crumbs the political leadership deigns to give them. Hence the rapprochement with the Liberals and Conservatives, including Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford.
So Jerry wanted the City of Oshawa to honour him by naming a city street after him. He had one of his employees, a man named Terry Farrell, make the request. He said, and had people say, that it was Jerry who “saved the plant in Oshawa”.
The members of Local 222 at the GM plant in Oshawa got wind of this. They flooded the city council with messages of disgust and protest. They wanted nothing to do with the proposal.
The view of some members of Unifor Local 222
Check: Jerry Dias did not save the plant. GM ended vehicle production in December 2019. Workers were making $36 an hour at the time. GM decided in 2021 that it would reopen the plant to produce trucks. Workers now earn $23 an hour, a drop of $13. Jerry Dias is responsible for this and other setbacks.
The City Council realized that the idea was unacceptable, rejecting the proposal in a 9-2 vote.
And so Jerry Dias’ dream fizzled, just like that of the frog who wanted to be like the ox in Lafontaine’s fable.
His all-consuming ambition was devoured. (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)
Jerry Dias, président du syndicat UNIFOR, ne verra pas une rue à son nom à Oshawa. Les membres de la section locale 222 d’UNIFOR ne veulent rien savoir, le conseil de la ville d’Oshawa non plus, qui a voté contre la proposition à 9 contre 2.
Histoire cocasse s’il en est, qui démontre que Jerry n’a pas lu la fable de Lafontaine de la grenouille et le boeuf.
En gros, c’est l’histoire de l’ambition dévorante d’un syndicaliste qui se prend pour un héros de la classe ouvrière tout en faisant des mamours avec Doug Ford et Justin Trudeau.
L’Unifor est exclu du Congrès du travail du Canada et de toutes les fédérations des travailleuses et travailleurs provinciales, SAUF la FTQ qui jouit d’un statut de souveraineté-association au sein du mouvement syndical. Exclu parce qu’il faisait de maraudage chez d’autres syndicats au lieu d’organiser des travailleuses et des travailleurs non syndiqués.
Malgré la formidable histoire des TUA (Travailleurs unis de l’automobile), devenus les TCA (Travailleurs canadiens de l’automobile) avant de devenir UNIFOR, les dirigeants canadiens d’UNIFOR semblent avoir tourné le dos à la classe ouvrière et à la social-démocratie pour quêter des miettes que les dirigeants politiques daignaient leur donner. D’où le rapprochement avec les Libéraux et les Conservateurs, dont Justin Trudeau et Doug Ford.
Donc Jerry a voulu que la ville d’Oshawa l’honore en donnant son nom à une rue de la ville. Il a fait faire la demande par un de ces employés, un dénommé Terry Farrell. Il disait, et faisait dire, que c’est Jerry qui a « sauvé l’usine à Oshawa ».
Les membres de la section locale 222 de l’usine de GM à Oshawa en ont eu vent. Ils ont submergé le conseil de ville de messages de dégoût et de protestation. Ils ne voulaient rien savoir de cette proposition.
Vérification : Jerry Dias n’a pas sauvé l’usine. GM a mis fin à la production de véhicules en décembre 2019. Les travailleuses et travailleurs gagnaient alors 36$ l’heure. GM a décidé en 2021 qu’elle allait rouvrir l’usine pour produire des camions. Les travailleurs et travailleuses gagnent maintenant 23$ l’heure, une baisse de 13$. C’est Jerry Dias qui est responsable de ce recul et d’autres.
Le Conseil de ville a compris que l’idée était inacceptable, rejetant la proposition dans un vote de 9 à 2.
C’est ainsi qu’a pété le rêve de Jerry Dias, tout comme celui de la grenouille qui voulait être comme le boeuf dans la fable de Lafontaine.
Linda McQuaig spoke recently on The Taylor Report, CIUT 89.5 fm, about her new book, The Sport & Prey of Capitalists. Linda’s book is an intriguing and informative exploration of the history of public ownership in Canada, and demolishes the myth that private ownership is always best.
My book is basically the story of privatization … The doctrine that the private sector always does things better – it’s always asserted by the business community with great confidence, but never with any evidence. In fact, there’s no evidence that they always do things better … overall, the evidence is it’s very costly when we turn to them, when we privatize things and hand things over to them. It ends up costing us a fortune … My favorite example is the 407.
Here is what Linda said about GM’s closure of the Oshawa plant: “Rather than shut down this historic plant that was the centre of the automotive industry in Canada, let’s have government take it over and let’s use it to create green production vehicles … which we desperately need as part of a Green New Deal.”
Linda McQuaig – “Let’s have government take it over”
General Motors has profited for many years by operating in countries like Colombia where wages are low, where safety standards non-existant, and where governments are anti-union and anti-worker. Many workers at the GM Colmotores plant in Bogota, Columbia have suffered permanent injuries due to the unsafe conditions. GM routinely fires injured workers, and prevents them from getting compensation.
Injured GM workers in Bogoto, Colombia express their solidarity.
Over eight years ago, the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colmotores (ASOTRECOL) was formed to fight for the rights of these injured workers. Since August 2, 2011 they have maintained a tent encampment in front of the US Embassy in Bogota. They have carried out hunger strikes, sometimes sewing their mouths shut. In the process they have gathered international support, and won some victories. However, there are still many injured workers who have not received justice, and the protest continues.
I made a motion at the Unifor Local 222 membership meeting on September 5 for our Local to send a message of solidarity to the injured workers in Colombia, donate $500 to help them in their struggle, and also send a letter to General Motors demanding that they provide justice. The motion passed. Here are the two letters sent by Local 222 President Colin James based on the membership action. Above is a picture of the appreciative workers in Colombia.
Green Jobs Oshawa distributed this leaflet at the Unifor Constitutional Convention on Wednesday, August 21. It calls for government action to establish electric vehicle production in Oshawa, under public ownership.
Links to download PDF copies of the leaflet in English and French are at the end of this post.
Local 222 (Oshawa) has submitted some very important resolutions to the Unifor Constitutional Convention, which is being held in Quebec City from August 19-23.
These resolutions challenge the Unifor delegates to: 1) support a Workers’ Green New Deal, 2) fight for equal wages, pensions and benefits in legislation and bargaining, and 3) rejoin the CLC.
These resolutions were all raised from the floor and passed by the membership at Local meetings. They were NOT put forward by the Local leadership. In fact, the Local 222 leadership did not put forward any resolutions for the Convention.
If you are a Unifor member, please urge your delegates to support these resolutions.
Workers’ Green New Deal
Equal Wages, Benefits and Pensions
Reaffiliate to the CLC
Resolutions Booklet
These resolutions are R-2, R-5, and R-6. All of the resolutions and constitutional amendments can be found in the Resolutions Booklet.
Did Jerry Dias make a deal to save the Oshawa plant, or did he give in and accept GM’s determination to end vehicle production in Oshawa?
Just before Christmas last year, GM announced their intention to close Oshawa, meaning the loss of 5,000 direct jobs involved in the assembly of cars and trucks, with a much larger impact on the community of Oshawa – an overall loss of 20,000 jobs.
5,000 jobs, not 2600
GM claimed that 2,600 jobs were affected when they announced the closure, and the media has used that figure ever since. But GM knew that they were taking jobs away from 5,000 workers whose jobs are directly part of the assembly of vehicles in Oshawa. It has been GM’s deliberate policy over the years to outsource as much of the work as possible to third-party supplier companies – to force wages and benefits down. Now GM will claim no responsibility for those workers when they leave town. Many of those outsourced jobs are right inside the Oshawa plant – building services trades, cleaners, workers who sequence and deliver parts, security, the tire room. Others are nearby – including workers who make foam and manufacture seats, and other parts suppliers. At one time all of those jobs were done by workers who were employed directly by GM, and had the same wages and benefits as other GM assembly workers. Now they make less than second tier assembly workers, have inferior benefits, and most have no pensions. And almost all of them are members of Unifor – but has Jerry done anything for them?
From “Save the Plant” to “Keep a Footprint”
Unifor President Jerry Dias vowed to fight to keep the plant open. He hired an expensive public relations company, whose strategic brilliance included a “Tree of Hope”, and an ad on the Super Bowl broadcast, rather than relying on workers’ actions. After several months, the “fight” became reduced to talks with GM to maintain a “footprint” and save “as many jobs as possible”.
Finally, on May 8, the deal was announced – only 300 jobs would be saved – That is only 6% of the 5,000 jobs left in Oshawa. And 300 is just 1.5% of the 20,000 jobs that were in Oshawa not too long ago. Those 300 jobs will be reserved for direct employees of GM. Senior GM workers will be offered retirement or severance incentives. Workers hired by GM since 2006 fare worse – they only get credit for time worked since 2016 to qualify for incentive packages. For the 2,500 workers at supplier companies the deal provides zero jobs, zero incentive packages, zero severance beyond the bare minimum provided by law. Yet, they are Unifor members too. They are workers too.
Here are some of my impressions of the deal and how it was announced.
The Jerry and Travis Show – the members are the last to know
GM of Canada President Travis Hester shakes hands with Unifor President Jerry Dias in front of a company and union backdrop.
Jerry Dias did not meet with the workers affected by the plant closure to let them know what was in his deal with GM. Instead, he took part in a joint press conference with GM of Canada President Travis Hester on May 8 in downtown Toronto. The backdrop featured the logos of GM and Unifor as though the organizations were partners, and the whole set-up was clearly designed to try to rescue GM’s damaged public image. Jerry was on a first-name basis with Hester, while the workers suffered the indignity of learning about their fate by watching the press conference.
Holding the press conference far away from the workers, who would know how hollow the ‘victory’ was, served a very damaging purpose – it left the public with the false impression that the plant has been saved.
The Good Business Model
Comment by a GM worker.
During the Toronto press conference, Jerry praised GM for promising to keep 300 jobs in Oshawa, and said “I’m content that we have established what I believe to be a business plan for the long term”. The workers in Oshawa who are losing their jobs are a lot less content.
Membership Meetings – Where’s Jerry?
Question by a GM worker.
When meetings were held with the members the next day, on May 9, Jerry Dias did not even bother to show up. That is really adding insult to injury. The post on the right shows the reaction of one Oshawa worker.
The 300 Jobs – Now you see them, now you don’t
It wasn’t until the meetings on May 9 that we got more details about the 300 jobs. The jobs will be in the Oshawa Stamping Plant, a small part of the GM complex, and GM’s only commitment is to have the jobs in place by the end of the 2020 calendar year. Our leadership expressed faith “that most of them would start … in the second half of the year”. Since vehicle production will be done in December, 2019, this means that people who apply for the 300 stamping jobs could be on layoff for 6 months or more before they start. I asked at the meeting if there was any guarantee that the jobs would last past the expiry of our contract – September 21, 2020. The short answer was “No”, there are no guarantees, of course. When the contract expires, everything has to be renegotiated. If GM announces next year that they have changed their mind, or that “conditions have changed”, there could be no jobs at all.
Why should we trust GM Now?
The deal that has been reached depends on GM’s good will – which means it is worth nothing. GM has promised 300 jobs – but they have until the end of 2020 to deliver them. And that is after the expiry of Unifor’s collective agreement. Why should we take GM’s word now, when we have already seen what their promises in 2016 were worth? This deal provides very little for the 2,500 GM workers. It provides nothing for the 2,500 workers at supplier companies. Most importantly this deal provides nothing for the community – no jobs for the future, and the loss of important manufacturing capacity for Oshawa, Ontario and Canada. GM is already taking inventory of the equipment they are going to take out and relocate or sell.
Demand Public Ownership and a Green Transition
Oshawa Complex. Stamping (in red) – 300 jobs. The rest of the complex, including vehicle production (in black) – zero jobs.
The only realistic way to prevent the dismantling of the Oshawa complex, and the bulldozing of the plant buildings to make space for condos and big box stores, would be for governments to step in and save the manufacturing capacity, and repurpose the plant for electric vehicles, public transit, and renewable energy products. We desperately need that bold action by government anyway to meet the current climate crisis. What better place to start than in Oshawa? If we leave it up to GM, they will put their profits first, and the public interest last. We can’t accept that capitalist cold-hearted logic.
The aerial view shows that GM’s plans will at best keep jobs in a small corner of the Oshawa manufacturing complex – the Stamping Plant outlined in red. All of the automation, robots, technology and equipment used for the assembly of cars and trucks is in the buildings outlined in black – and they will all be empty. We need to force governments to act now, or it will be too late. Can this be done? As veteran union activist Sid Ryan posted recently on Facebook:
One of those alternatives was to push these governments to consider public ownership (nationalise) the Oshawa facility and to repurpose it. After all, the federal and Ontario governments had no problem pumping billions of dollars into GM during the 2008/09 financial disaster brought about by pure greed on Wall St. Why was it ok to hand over taxpayers money to wealthy corporations to enhance their profits in 2008/09 but not do so today to save workers jobs by nationalizing the plant? Furthermore, the federal government had no problem investing in repurposing the Oshawa plants during WWII to churn out military vehicles. Why not now invest in the plant and its workers to design and build electric vehicles, buses and rapid transit systems as just one option?
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has called for the replacement of the entire Canada Post vehicle fleet with electric vehicles assembled in Canada. That could be the ideal start for a publicly owned manufacturing centre in Oshawa, and the kickstart to a greatly needed Green New Deal.
Workers in GM’s Oshawa Assembly Plant took the initiative themselves to shut down production January 8 in a sit-down strike. Reversing GM’s decision will take more than rallies, argues auto worker Tony Leah: “We have to use our power on the job, and it needs to happen before they get all the production they want.”
[This interview first appeared in Labor Notes]
General Motors has announced it will end production at five North American plants, just a decade after the company received billions of dollars in U.S. and Canadian taxpayer money and won sweeping concessions from auto unions as part of the bailout.
All told, about 6,700 hourly and salaried employees stand to lose their jobs as the lines stop at Oshawa Assembly in Ontario, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan, and Lordstown Assembly in Ohio. Meanwhile the company is posting billions in profits.
Neither the United Auto Workers nor Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, which represents auto workers in Oshawa, has called for job actions, leaving many union activists feeling frustrated and dispirited.
Nonetheless, workers in GM’s Oshawa Assembly Plant took the initiative themselves to shut down production in a sit-down strike this week. Auto workers in Detroit will be protesting GM at the January 18 North American International Auto Show.
Tony Leah is a longtime union activist who has put in 38 years at the Oshawa plant. He chairs the Political Action Committee of Unifor Local 222 and coordinates the union education program in the plant, organizing trainings with members every week on shop floor topics like how to stop harassment and big-picture issues like trade deals.
Labor Notes’ Chris Brooks spoke with Leah on January 10 about the sit-down and why it’s essential that workers use their power on the job—not just a public relations campaign—to bring GM to the negotiating table.
Labor Notes: When did you hear about the company’s decision to end production in Oshawa, and what was the response from your co-workers?
Tony Leah: On Sunday, November 25, in the evening, is when word got out. I believe that the union had received some notification from GM that afternoon, so that started circulating pretty widely.
Monday morning, people were angry. We had been told there would be an announcement from GM, but everyone knew by then that they were planning to close the plant by the end of 2019.
Management told workers we would be gathered together for meetings by 10 a.m. for the announcement, but we all walked out of the plant before that.
The plant was shut down and that evening we had a meeting with the union leadership about what they had heard from GM and what our response was going to be.
What has been Unifor’s response?
There has been a woeful lack of involvement of members in determining strategy and direction. The leadership has not asked members to discuss ideas. It is asking people to show up for small rallies around town waving banners, putting up lawn signs, and so on.
The local union leadership has gone so far as to actively discourage involvement or questions by sabotaging union meetings—for example, directing union reps not to show up, and having them direct members to a banner event instead of the local membership meeting on January 4, resulting in there being no quorum and having the meeting cancelled.
From the national union, while [Unifor President] Jerry Dias has used militant rhetoric, the actual campaign has mainly relied on a public relations company. The campaign is designed to run ads on radio, television, and social media.
They are saying GM is harming workers in the community, which is true—and public support is important. But it’s not sufficient to change GM’s decision. A battle like this requires far more than public sympathy. We have to have a direct impact on their bottom lines and impact their profits. Unfortunately, that has not been a central part of the union’s strategy.
In my opinion, the greatest weaknesses so far are, one, not seeing workers’ ability to stop production as key, and two, ignoring the need for solidarity from the rest of the labor movement in Canada, and solidarity with auto workers in the U.S. and other countries.
Jerry Dias pulled Unifor out of the Canadian Labour Congress a year ago to allow him to pursue raids against other affiliates, which has had a big negative impact on our ability to build a broader fightback. The membership of Local 222 opposed the disaffiliation.
The union is run in a top-down way, so they come up with the strategy and just expect everyone else to implement it. There is no forum for us to discuss how to push our advantage on the production line. The positive actions have been mostly driven by spontaneous actions of the workers.
How were the sit-down actions organized? These were worker-led actions, not initiated by the national union, right?
Everything boiled over this week because we were told that Unifor was meeting with GM in Detroit to discuss keeping Oshawa open. We were told there would be a response from GM that would be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, January 8.
At the time that the press conference was on, around 4:20 p.m. that day, most people were gathered somewhere in the plant to watch it. The announcement was that GM was still going to end production in Oshawa.
So the truck-production shift, which works afternoons, sat down. The whole plant went down as a result, so about 700 people stopped work. People gathered together. Management tried to get people to go back to work. When that failed, management told everyone to leave, and then that failed.
The union had to respond, but the plant leadership was in Windsor at the time and it took them five hours to get to the plant. Eventually the plant chair arrived and gave his speech and led everyone out of the plant. They got no production from that shift.
The action happened because people had built up hope in the union’s meetings with the company and nothing came out of it.
The next day there were sporadic actions, but no overall shutdown or occupation. Lots of people were angry and stopping work and shutting things down in truck and car production. That anger is still there, and the desire to resist is still there.
The national leadership has called for a January 11 rally in Windsor to protest the closing. That’s a head scratcher. We feel like the battle is here.
Can you give me an example of the union’s failed PR strategy?
The best example is the “Tree of Hope.” The union called a press conference in mid-December and said we are going to launch our public campaign against the GM plant closing.
The press conference was in Memorial Park, where the union unveiled this big 20- to 30-foot Christmas tree. They had places where people could leave messages on a banner to show community support. They had Christmas ornaments that say “Save GM Oshawa” that people could order and put on their own trees and then share out on social media.
When you have a campaign designed by a P.R. firm, you get this kind of media stuff and not anything that actually impacts profit generation at the point of production. You don’t get strikes, you get a “Tree of Hope.”
Our members are showing they want to be more aggressive dealing with GM. We showed that on the first day, when we walked out and shut down three shifts. The union told us to go back and show GM what a good job we can do producing for them.
Oftentimes union members don’t want to be too critical of the union, especially when we are under attack. But it is imperative that we question this strategy and push for militant actions.
It seems like the union is totally disconnected from the anger that workers and community members have about GM’s decision, especially given the past history of union concessions and taxpayer bailout.
That’s exactly right. We’ve given up so much over the years. For 10 years, we had 500 people that were classified as “Supplemental Workforce Employees, or SWEs” and were second-tier workers. They performed the same jobs as everyone else, but for far less – first 70%, later 60% of regular pay.
The SWEs were considered to be somewhat like perpetual probationary employees, or contract workers. They did not have a seniority date, which is a fundamental right under any collective agreement. As non-seniority employees they did not have any layoff and recall rights, no pensions, no supplemental unemployment benefits, far fewer health care and other benefits.
GM started using that category of worker in 2007 and got the union to agree to it. Initially, these positions were only supposed to be hired for short periods when there were major plant changes, but GM extended them to all the time.
Finally in 2016 it was negotiated that they were going to be hired as seniority employees. But although some of them had worked for GM since 2007, they were all assigned a seniority date of September 26, 2016. They got no credit for the years they worked as GM employees. That means that if the plant closes this year, they will be considered to only have three years’ service and will not be eligible for any plant closure compensation under the current contract.
These are people doing the exact same job. Our production rate is $35.42 (Canadian) an hour. But second-tier workers are currently making $20.92 to $23.91 an hour. It takes 11 years to reach equal pay. Two people doing the same job right next to each other and one is making $35 an hour and the other makes $21. The union’s justification was that this was what was needed to keep these jobs here, but as we see, it has had no impact on keeping the jobs here. It just added to GM’s profits.
What’s it like working at GM at Oshawa?
It’s changed a lot over the years. When I was first hired, the company was in expansion mode. There were 75 apprentices in my apprenticeship class and 400 total in the plant. In the mid-1980s we had 3,000 skilled-trades and 14,000 production workers in Oshawa.
We’ve gone through a long series of layoffs and the elimination of vehicles we produce. It’s been really difficult. Today, we have about 320 skilled-trades and 1,800 production workers. We have flex lines—car production is on one shift and truck production on two other shifts.
A lot of that workforce reduction is due to elimination of plants and operations, and reduction in vehicle assembly shifts and volume. But a significant part is due to outsourcing of work to third-party companies
Even in our facility, we have eight or 10 other companies that are doing work associated with the plant that used to be GM jobs. Cleaning, building services, sequencing, security, and other operations are now done by workers who work inside the Oshawa plant, but who do not work directly for GM. Even the tire room has been outsourced.
Thus, even though there are only 2,100 GM workers who are represented by Unifor, there are another 1,000 or more who work inside the plant for other employers—most of whom are also members of Unifor Local 222.
That is just within the plant itself. It doesn’t include outside suppliers. All told there are over 5,000 direct jobs that will be lost if this plant closes.
This is all happening at a time when GM’s profits are soaring.
GM’s profits have been incredible since 2010. Just over the last couple of years, GM’s North American profits have been $12 billion (U.S.) annually.
So they are making out like bandits. They took government money, wrote off their debts, implemented two tier systems, and all of that is going to their profits. But there is no commitment to anyone else.
Why are we allowing our entire economy to run on the basis of what is best for corporations and not for our communities? That is the larger question we should be asking, rather than publicly begging GM to keep this one plant here.
If GM walks away from Oshawa, then we should seize the operation and convert production to socially necessary and beneficial work. That’s the kind of issue being raised in Detroit by Autoworkers Caravan and the Detroit Democratic Socialists of America. They’re calling for making Detroit the engine of a Green New Deal.
Those of us that have that outlook are hoping to raise these points at the Detroit auto show on January 18. This action has been endorsed by Local 222’s Political Action Committee and our local’s Retiree Committee. We are chartering a bus to bring workers to that action in Detroit.
Unifor has also followed the UAW in making explicitly nationalistic appeals to these companies, pushing for what is best for Americans or Canadians, as opposed to what is best for workers.
Fundamentally, our issues as workers are common. All workers that are dealing with GM should have solidarity with one another.
I don’t see that coming from our national union’s leadership, unfortunately. They frame everything as GM betraying Canada and we need to save Canada. They aren’t trying to build common efforts for workers in the United States or to build international solidarity with workers in Mexico.
Our national union has ties to the Liberal Party of Canada, which involved Jerry Dias as part of its NAFTA renegotiation team.
This isn’t your first plant occupation. Can you talk about what happened in 1996 and how that informs what you think would be an effective strategy today?
That was the year we went on strike. GM tried to take dies [specialized tools used to cut and shape particular parts] out of our plant while we were on strike so they could maintain production.
There were parts that were produced in Oshawa that were needed for plants in the United States. Due to the strike, production in the States would shut down. So GM tried to get an injunction and seize these dies to maintain production and break the strike. In response, we occupied the plant.
We learned that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with legalities, but with what is an effective strategy given the circumstances. The history of our union is that we have to occupy plants to make gains, whether that occupation is legal or illegal.
In our current situation, we have more bargaining leverage with GM while they have production scheduled for our plant. Currently we are making old-model pickup trucks while the Fort Wayne Assembly Plant is being retooled for the new model. GM wants to maintain market share in the meantime. So truck production continues here.
GM makes huge profits on these trucks—estimates are $15,000 per truck. The trucks we are scheduled to build here before they shut the plant will generate $1 billion in profit for GM.
That gives us bargaining leverage and power over this corporation. They don’t care about a Tree of Hope. They want these trucks and this profit.
We shouldn’t hand it over to them. If they want those trucks, then they have to give us something in return. We have to use our power on the job, which is far more important than ads on television. And it needs to happen before they get all the production they want.
Under current circumstances, sitting down on the job is more powerful than walkouts and even traditional strikes.
Once we’ve taken the plant over, we can begin to lead a national conversation about who is going to run it in the future. It would be powerful to involve the community and government in a discussion about what we can do with this production capacity once it is put in our hands for our benefit, rather than GM’s.
This interview first appeared in Labor Notes, January 11, 2019.
The show is 28 minutes long, and features an interview with Cory Weir and Mike Mutimer from Local 222. The show highlights the issues that have led to growing discontentment amongst rank-and-file Unifor members. Cory and Mike also talk about the basic goals of Solinet – to fight for changes to Unifor so that there is rank-and-file democracy, working class politics and bargaining for solidarity.
Please listen and share.
Here are some quotes from the interview:
“What the labour movement needs to do is to stop playing defence and start going on the offence, because history has shown that’s how you invigorate rank and file workers, that’s how you invigorate your community.”
“If you are a member of Unifor and you think that things could be better and that our push back could be stronger and that we deserve better as workers instead of taking these concessionary agreements. Maybe you feel disenfranchised by our political direction, our support for some of these corporate parties, donations to Conservatives from some people in our leadership. If that stuff draws a little anger from you – we’d love to hear from you.”
Talking Radical Radio, hosted by Scott Neigh, has done a feature on the Unifor Solidarity Network: