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Ripple Effects Begin To Appear From CAMI Strike

By William Maley

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  • The effects of the CAMI strike are beginning to appear

Last Sunday night, workers at General Motors' CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario went on strike due to the automaker and Unifor Local 88 being unable to reach a tentative agreement. The plant where the majority of the Chevrolet Equinoxes are built has been shut down since. Now the side effects are the strike are beginning to be felt.

At least 255 workers at GM's St. Catharines, Ontario plant have been given temporary layoff notices that begin tomorrow. St. Catharines is where the transmissions for the Equinox are built. According to Automotive News, workers spent the week stockpiling transmissions.

"We supply about 90 per cent of (CAMI's) transmissions, so it's related to that. Even though they were down, we ran all week ... We have a lot of transmissions stockpiled now because we didn't know if they were going to resolve it this week or not. It doesn't look like they're going to," said Tim McKinnon, chairman of Unifor Local 199 that represents St. Catharines.

“We’re off until they get it settled. Every time they sneeze, we catch a cold. If they pick up more volume, we pick up more volume.”

GM announced late last week that it is making production adjustments at St. Catharines, Spring Hill, and Flint Engine Operations. Both Spring Hill and Flint provide the engines for the Equinox. Also last week, Canadian supplier Magna International said it would suspend the supply of parts.

The top concerns for the two sides are very different. For GM, it is the worry of having enough supply of Equnoxes for the demand. Sales rose 85 percent year-over-year in August. While GM does also build the Equinox in San Luis Potosi and Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, the two plants cannot match the output of CAMI (40,017 for the Mexican plants vs. 132,288 for CAMI). For Unifor, they want assurances that CAMI will remain the lead plant for the Equinox and want another product for the plant to build.

Unifor has reached out to GM on Wednesday on possibly restarting negotiations. At this time, no word on whether two have or will meet.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), The Canadian Press via CBC

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    Grand Master

    oldshurst442

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    3 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

    Lock them out and shutter the plant.

    And then ship them off to Boston!!! 

     

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    • Haha 1
    Grand Master

    G. David Felt

    Members
    5 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

    Lock them out and shutter the plant.

    Agreed, time to consolidate and move it south as Drew mentioned. No need to deal with the greedy Unions. Increase employment in plants that can handle the added production.

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    Veteran

    Robert Hall

    Premium Subscriber
    (edited)

    That would be sad to see more production going to the South, I loathe the South and would rather see GM and others keep car production in the Midwest and Northeast..but that seems to be a dying proposition...:(

    Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar

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    Mentor

    A Horse With No Name

    Members
    1 hour ago, dfelt said:

    Agreed, time to consolidate and move it south as Drew mentioned. No need to deal with the greedy Unions. Increase employment in plants that can handle the added production.

    I would up vote this by ten million if I could.

    48 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

    That would be sad to see more production going to the South, I loathe the South and would rather see GM and others keep car production in the Midwest and Northeast..but that seems to be a dying proposition...:(

    I loathe pats of the south but there are parts I find fantastic.

    3 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

    And then ship them off to Boston!!! 

     

    Or let them sit home on their cold unemployed asses...

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    • Agree 1
    Veteran

    Robert Hall

    Premium Subscriber
    Just now, A Horse With No Name said:

    I would up vote this by ten million if I could.

    I loathe pats of the south but there are parts I find fantastic.

    It's actually the people and 'culture' that I dislike more than the geographic region itself..love the food.. :)

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    Mentor

    A Horse With No Name

    Members
    1 minute ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

    It's actually the people and 'culture' that I dislike more than the geographic region itself..love the food.. :)

    ...and here is where we disagree...I just look at people as individuals and try not to stereotype. It is sort of like saying all teenage girls giglle and swoon...or all football players are dismal when it comes to academics.

    Outside of politics I would love to live in say Tennessee.  But of late I have fallen hard out of love with the Democrats as well.  Stopping the political discussion before the thread gets locked...

    4 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

    It's actually the people and 'culture' that I dislike more than the geographic region itself..love the food.. :)

    ...and here is to going out in style eating deep fried everything..!

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    • Veteran

    Robert Hall

    Premium Subscriber
    (edited)
    19 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

    ...and here is where we disagree...I just look at people as individuals and try not to stereotype. It is sort of like saying all teenage girls giglle and swoon...or all football players are dismal when it comes to academics.

    Outside of politics I would love to live in say Tennessee.  But of late I have fallen hard out of love with the Democrats as well.  Stopping the political discussion before the thread gets locked...

    ...and here is to going out in style eating deep fried everything..!

    It's like New Orleans..found the place gross and humid, but loved the food the time I was there... I could never live in the Deep South, though I could see spending winters in Miami or the Keys...still love it down there 30 years after living there.  (the recent hurricane did a lot of damage down there, very sad..lot of friends that still live there suffered).

    Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar

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    • Grand Master

    G. David Felt

    Members
    23 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

    It's actually the people and 'culture' that I dislike more than the geographic region itself..love the food.. :)

    I agree on the Food. :D

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    • Grand Master

    oldshurst442

    Members
    3 hours ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

    That would be sad to see more production going to the South

    How far South you talkin' about?

     

    Because I said Boston...and where Im from...that would be south...for me and those CAMI workers...

    Unless of course you flippin on them Yankees...and you mean South Boston...Alabama...:D

     

     

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    • Veteran

    Robert Hall

    Premium Subscriber
    (edited)

    South of the Mason-Dixon Line or the Ohio River, I suppose ;)  I'll admit to regional bias-- I love the Great Lakes region, Northeastern US, the West Coast and only a few other areas of the US. 

    Edited by Cubical-aka-Moltar

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    • Collaborator

    daves87rs

    Members

    In Honestly, I want this to hang for a little while.

    Get the feeling this might be more of a benefit anyways, as GM is not in a rush to fix it. They could just get by with Mexico for a little while....

    The downslide in sales is on the way.....

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