BY ROBERT MILLER
WINDSOR, Ontario - When the 500 Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) members poured out of the General Motors (GM) trim plant here on October 9, some 5 hours before their 11:59 p.m. strike deadline, they showed their fighting spirit and determination by grabbing their picket signs and forming a long line in front of the plant. While strikers shouted and whistled, motorists and truckers on the busy thoroughfare in front of the plant honked their horns in support of the strike.

Tom Milligan, a seat builder at the plant for 19 years, was walking the picket line the third day of the strike in this city across the border from Detroit. "We had 2,700 workers in the late 80's. Now we're down to about 1,100 and they want to sell the place," he explained. Some of the picket signs said, "30 years of profit = Unemployment."

The strikers told the Militant that earlier that day, three members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 22 from the GM Cadillac plant in Hamtramck, Michigan, had come across the river to express their support. The Cadillac plant, which uses seats from the trim plant, was going to shut that night, they reported.

Between the two front gates of the GM plant were lawn signs reading "No Detroit News/Free Press" in solidarity with the year-long Detroit newspaper workers' strike.

Workers at the trim plant and the Windsor transmission plant are both organized by CAW Local 1973. At the union hall, notices advertised buses leaving for Toronto on October 25 and 26 for the Days of Action against the provincial government's austerity measures.

BY MITRA SHARMA

ST. CATHERINES, Ontario - Pickets were scattered around the GM components plant here October 12. Members of CAW Local 199 expressed their anger toward the company's closing of the GM foundry in St. Catherines October 1. Many workers viewed this as an affront since they were told time and time again that their jobs were assured as long as they were productive and took pride in the quality of their work.

Joe Kachur, a worker in the forge, explained, "The company created a lot of illusions. We gave them what they wanted and they still did what they said they weren't going to do." Twenty- five years ago, there were close to 13,000 GM workers here. Now there are just over 5,000.

CAW officials say they are fighting to get the same agreement on outsourcing from GM that they got from Chrysler, where the company supposedly guarantees that 95 percent of jobs remain in Chrysler plants during the life of the agreement. Kachur commented, "This contract is full of loopholes. I think 95 percent isn't good enough. That would mean 300 people here losing their jobs. They're whittling away at us."

Bob Miller is a member of UAW Local 980 in Edison, New Jersey. Mitra Sharma is a member of CAW Local 252 in Toronto.  
 
 
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