News Articles. |
Ottawa needs to show climate leadership, not just talk about it
Linda McQuaig, Toronto Star
September 26, 2019
September 26, 2019
After Pearl Harbour, top officials in the U.S. auto industry offered to add armaments to their auto production. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded, in effect: nice, but not nearly enough.
He then issued sweeping orders converting the auto industry to full-time war production, banning the manufacture of private cars, halting highway construction and outlawing pleasure driving.
The Canadian government also mobilized a massive industrial effort during the Second World War, creating 28 Crown corporations to churn out war material and converting auto factories to produce military vehicles.
With climate change as potentially threatening today as the German army was back then, it’s striking that our political leaders seem unable to mount the sort of far-reaching campaigns that characterized the war effort.
Hell, our political leaders don’t seem capable of mustering the most minimal effort — even when an opportunity unfolds, amid cries of anguish, right in front of them.
I’m referring to the anguish of thousands of auto workers scheduled to lose their jobs in a few months when GM Canada proceeds to shut down its Oshawa auto production — after 100 years of operation — while increasing production in Mexico.
He then issued sweeping orders converting the auto industry to full-time war production, banning the manufacture of private cars, halting highway construction and outlawing pleasure driving.
The Canadian government also mobilized a massive industrial effort during the Second World War, creating 28 Crown corporations to churn out war material and converting auto factories to produce military vehicles.
With climate change as potentially threatening today as the German army was back then, it’s striking that our political leaders seem unable to mount the sort of far-reaching campaigns that characterized the war effort.
Hell, our political leaders don’t seem capable of mustering the most minimal effort — even when an opportunity unfolds, amid cries of anguish, right in front of them.
I’m referring to the anguish of thousands of auto workers scheduled to lose their jobs in a few months when GM Canada proceeds to shut down its Oshawa auto production — after 100 years of operation — while increasing production in Mexico.
Webinar - Putting Climate Justice on the Bargaining Table:
Labour and the Green New Deal
The Leap
September 11, 2019
Watch on YouTube
Labour unions could be our best weapon against climate change. With millions of members, they have the collective power to bring the economy to a standstill — and to build a renewable and more equitable society. Workers are on the front lines of the climate crisis. It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to rebuild the labour movement. By putting climate justice demands on the bargaining table, unions are building massive public support and winning unprecedented contract gains. Plus, we're seeing an increase in union memberships for the first time in decades. Many unions are already showing us how: Teachers in LA just won smaller class sizes and more green spaces in their community. In San Francisco, public sector workers forced the city to divest its pension from fossil fuels AND blocked the construction of a new coal shipping terminal. In Baton Rouge, teachers and service workers planned a walkout to protest government handouts to ExxonMobil — and won new education funding instead. Join The Leap, labour leaders and experts for a webinar on how unions can lead the way on climate change and win good, unionized work for all.
Panelists:
September 11, 2019
Watch on YouTube
Labour unions could be our best weapon against climate change. With millions of members, they have the collective power to bring the economy to a standstill — and to build a renewable and more equitable society. Workers are on the front lines of the climate crisis. It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to rebuild the labour movement. By putting climate justice demands on the bargaining table, unions are building massive public support and winning unprecedented contract gains. Plus, we're seeing an increase in union memberships for the first time in decades. Many unions are already showing us how: Teachers in LA just won smaller class sizes and more green spaces in their community. In San Francisco, public sector workers forced the city to divest its pension from fossil fuels AND blocked the construction of a new coal shipping terminal. In Baton Rouge, teachers and service workers planned a walkout to protest government handouts to ExxonMobil — and won new education funding instead. Join The Leap, labour leaders and experts for a webinar on how unions can lead the way on climate change and win good, unionized work for all.
Panelists:
- Nato Green (organizer with SEIU local 1021)
- Tiffany Balducci (President of Durham Region Labour Council and 4th Vice-President of Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario)
- David Camfield (author of Canadian Labour in Crisis, Professor of Labour Studies and Sociology at the University of Manitoba)
Oshawa GM Plant Workers “Collateral Damage”
Sharmini Peries
June 5, 2019
The GM plant in Oshawa has shrunk from 23,000 jobs in early 1980’s to 300 today. Taxpayers bailed out GM to save jobs and productive capacity. A democratic just transition that saves the community and the jobs are possible, says former Assistant to the President of the Canadian Autoworkers Union, Sam Gindin
Read more...
June 5, 2019
The GM plant in Oshawa has shrunk from 23,000 jobs in early 1980’s to 300 today. Taxpayers bailed out GM to save jobs and productive capacity. A democratic just transition that saves the community and the jobs are possible, says former Assistant to the President of the Canadian Autoworkers Union, Sam Gindin
Read more...
Unifor Settlement with GM - Footprint or Toe tag?
Tony Leah
May 14, 2019
Did Unifor President 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 announcement 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.
Read more...
May 14, 2019
Did Unifor President 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 announcement 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.
Read more...
GM clearly has big plans - but they don’t include Oshawa
By Jennifer Wells
May 10, 2019
There’s a twist on a Tom Waits song that keeps ringing in my head. “[S]he’s got big plans and they don’t include you.”. The “she” in this case is Mary Barra. And the “you” is General Motors’ Oshawa plant.
For there it was, unallocated yesterday. And here it is, unallocated today. The announcement out of the auto giant on the future of the Oshawa plant arrived a few days later than expected.
Read more...
May 10, 2019
There’s a twist on a Tom Waits song that keeps ringing in my head. “[S]he’s got big plans and they don’t include you.”. The “she” in this case is Mary Barra. And the “you” is General Motors’ Oshawa plant.
For there it was, unallocated yesterday. And here it is, unallocated today. The announcement out of the auto giant on the future of the Oshawa plant arrived a few days later than expected.
Read more...
GM’s Move to Save 300 Jobs Aside, Now is the Time to Overhaul Canada’s Auto Industry
Thomas Walkom
May 9, 2019
General Motors says it will keep its Oshawa plant on life support. That’s better than the company’s original decision last fall to shut down its operations there entirely.
But it’s not much better. And it leaves unanswered a fundamental question: Is there a viable future for the auto industry in Ontario?
Read more...
May 9, 2019
General Motors says it will keep its Oshawa plant on life support. That’s better than the company’s original decision last fall to shut down its operations there entirely.
But it’s not much better. And it leaves unanswered a fundamental question: Is there a viable future for the auto industry in Ontario?
Read more...
Bringing Back the Lucas Plan
By Felix Holtwell
April 6, 2018
“We got to do something now, the company are not going to do anything and we got to protect ourselves,” proclaimed a shop steward at Lucas Aerospace when filmed by a 1978 documentary by the Open University.
He was explaining the rationale behind the so-called Alternative Corporate Plan, better known as the Lucas Plan. It was proposed by shop stewards in seventies England at the factories of Lucas Aerospace. To stave off pending layoffs, a shop steward committee established a plan that outlined a range of new, socially useful technologies for Lucas to build. With it, they fundamentally challenged the capitalist conception of technology design.
Read more...
April 6, 2018
“We got to do something now, the company are not going to do anything and we got to protect ourselves,” proclaimed a shop steward at Lucas Aerospace when filmed by a 1978 documentary by the Open University.
He was explaining the rationale behind the so-called Alternative Corporate Plan, better known as the Lucas Plan. It was proposed by shop stewards in seventies England at the factories of Lucas Aerospace. To stave off pending layoffs, a shop steward committee established a plan that outlined a range of new, socially useful technologies for Lucas to build. With it, they fundamentally challenged the capitalist conception of technology design.
Read more...
GM Oshawa: Lowered Expectations, Unexplored Opportunities
Sam Gindin
March 29, 2019
Following an aggressive public relations campaign in which union officials questioned GM’s loyalty to ‘Canadian taxpayers’, General Motors has apparently agreed to keep its Oshawa facility partially open. No official announcement has yet been made, but there are rumours of a revised plan to retain 600-700 workers by investing $100-million to stamp the cargo beds for pick-up trucks.
There are good reasons to be skeptical about both this rumour and this plan. But even if true, before a desperate workforce reluctantly accepts that ‘some jobs, however few, are better than nothing’, more ambitious thinking should be considered.
Read more...
March 29, 2019
Following an aggressive public relations campaign in which union officials questioned GM’s loyalty to ‘Canadian taxpayers’, General Motors has apparently agreed to keep its Oshawa facility partially open. No official announcement has yet been made, but there are rumours of a revised plan to retain 600-700 workers by investing $100-million to stamp the cargo beds for pick-up trucks.
There are good reasons to be skeptical about both this rumour and this plan. But even if true, before a desperate workforce reluctantly accepts that ‘some jobs, however few, are better than nothing’, more ambitious thinking should be considered.
Read more...
For the GM Oshawa Plant, Hope is Not a Strategy
Joanne Wells
January 15, 2019
“Thanks General Motors. For the jobs you create, the investments you make, the communities you support and for choosing to plant your feet firmly on Ontario soul once again.”
That was then-premier Dalton McGuinty in March 2005, announcing funding for the Beacon Project, celebrating what was billed as the most comprehensive automotive investment in Canadian history. The federal government tipped in $200 million, the province anted $235 million, the automaker made a $2.5-billion investment commitment and the premier sounded assured that the province’s Automotive Investment Strategy would hold Ontario’s place as a world leader in auto manufacturing and push it to the forefront of innovation.
Read more...
January 15, 2019
“Thanks General Motors. For the jobs you create, the investments you make, the communities you support and for choosing to plant your feet firmly on Ontario soul once again.”
That was then-premier Dalton McGuinty in March 2005, announcing funding for the Beacon Project, celebrating what was billed as the most comprehensive automotive investment in Canadian history. The federal government tipped in $200 million, the province anted $235 million, the automaker made a $2.5-billion investment commitment and the premier sounded assured that the province’s Automotive Investment Strategy would hold Ontario’s place as a world leader in auto manufacturing and push it to the forefront of innovation.
Read more...
