Unifor moves to ram through concessions deal on GM CAMI workers
By
Carl Bronski
15 September 2017
The contract covering 2,500 autoworkers at General Motors’ CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario expires at 10:59 pm on Sunday, September 17. Rank-and-file workers are determined to recoup past concessions and win improved wages and benefits from the highly profitable automaker.
The Unifor union, however, has kept workers in the dark about the content of its negotiations with GM Canada. With utter contempt for the democratic rights of workers, Unifor has called a “contract ratification/strike information” meeting at the London convention centre for Sunday without releasing any information about what workers are supposed to discuss, let alone vote on.
Instead workers are told there are two possible scenarios: there is no agreement and a strike begins; or a tentative agreement is reached and workers immediately vote on it. If they ratify, they go to work; if not, they are on strike. In other words, Unifor officials are preparing to ram through a “last minute” agreement on Sunday without workers having any chance to study the full content of the proposed agreement.
How many times have autoworkers been handed a bogus “highlights” brochure and forced to quickly ratify a contract only to learn later about the miserable side deals and “letters of agreement” the union executives have signed behind their backs?
This cannot stand. Before voting, rank-and-file CAMI workers must be given the full contract and two full weeks to study it before any vote. If the union does not comply, workers should immediately vote down any agreement on principle.
On Tuesday, Unifor issued a “bargaining update #4” on its web site. Union officials claimed “some progress” had been…