The president of Unifor says he is "bracing for the worst" when it comes to negotiations with General Motors.
Jerry Dias visited the CAMI picket line on Sunday morning to speak with members of Unifor local 88 and provide an update to the media.
Dias says an agreement won't be reached until they deal with the "elephant in the room," which he says is job security.
"It's clear what's going on here. Major industries are migrating to Mexico to exploit the workers. The only thing we can do in Canada is use our collective strength to reverse the decision of General Motors and that's what we're doing," says Dias.
According to Dias, four assembly plants have been closed in Canada and eight plants are now open in Mexico with two more coming. He says only 8% of the auto market is in Mexico, yet they have 45% of the jobs.
"Our members shouldn't be afraid based on the fact that they've been working six days a week for the last eight years. They're the number one plant in the world when it comes to productivity. The way they're rewarded is that we have 500 less jobs at the plant today than we did a year ago," explains Dias.
He says it's difficult to determine how much longer the strike will last.
A statement on the Unifor local 88 webpage suggests the talks held Thursday at GM's Detroit headquarters didn't bring the strike any closer to an end.
"On Thursday, September 28, 2017 Mike Van Boekel and Dan Borthwick from Unifor Local 88, along with Jerry Dias and Shane Wark from Unifor National went to GM Headquarters in Detroit. We met with the heads of North American Manufacturing and Finance. We expressed our concerns around our outstanding issues, such as Job Security, Economics and Contract Language," the statement says. "GM Detroit understood our issues and made a commitment to respond by late Friday afternoon. The response we received from GM late Friday did not address our issues."
The 2,800 CAMI workers have been on strike since September 17. Job security is the main sticking point in the labour dispute. The union has been asking for a letter guaranteeing production of the Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicle will not be shifted to another plant. Earlier this year, GM shifted production of the Terrain sport utility vehicle to Mexico, costing hundreds of positions at CAMI.