Jun 03, 2008 - 02:30 PM

By Melissa Mancini

OSHAWA - The Tuesday announcement by General Motors Corporation that the Oshawa truck plant will close by 2009 will result in the permanent loss of 2,600 jobs, CAW president Buzz Hargrove said.

The national union leader said the closing is a complete violation of the three-year collective agreement between the automaker and the union ratified May 16.

Local 222 President Chris Buckley said he feels betrayed at the announcement, especially since the new deal included future product allocation for the plant.

“We gave General Motors millions of dollars back in operating costs to allow us to remain competitive,” he said. “We froze our wages, we froze our cost of living, we did a number of different things and benefits to give them cost relief to the point where they were comfortable enough to commit to future product for our truck plant and as of this morning they’ve pulled that product away from us. I feel very betrayed.”

The CAW plan for how to deal with the truck closing announcement has not been set, Mr. Buckley said.

“Once this thing wears off we’re going to plan our strategy in regards to them not living up to their commitment, I just don’t have my head around that at this moment today,” Mr. Buckley said.

Mr. Hargrove said the closing is illegal and the union will fight GM to keep the plant open.

“Our membership are some pissed off today and rightfully so,” Mr. Hargrove said.   

He said the market is the problem, but wants to know why Canada is being targeted for production cuts.

“If you are going to have to reduce, why is Canada being impacted?” he said.

“How do you ever ratify a collective agreement if two weeks later a company can come back and say, ‘Oops we didn’t mean that.’”

He said the federal government has the power to stop the closing from happened, by bringing back auto pact rules where companies had to produce one vehicle for every unit sold in Canada or had to pay duty on everything sold.

Mr. Hargrove said the union is going to be exploring all options to stop the closing from happening and would not rule out the possibility of a strike.

Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, said the closing of the Oshawa truck plant and three other North American plants, is a response to the dramatic shift in fuel prices which has recently accelerated.

“This really is the story of high fuel prices and a dramatic shift in the truck market in the United States,” Mr. Clarke said. “This is not an issue with regards to manufacture in Canada or anything like that.”

The shift in the market has become evident in the past couple weeks in dramatic proportions, said Mr. Clarke. Sales of the full-size pickup have declined over 35 per cent from the first quarter 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, he said.

He said the truck plant would cease production some time in 2009, depending on demand.

GM will change its production ratios from 50 per cent cars and 50 per cent trucks to 60 per cent cars and 40 per cent trucks, Mr. Clarke said. The flexible car plant in Oshawa is gearing up to produce the Camaro and Camaro convertible and as part of the May 16 agreement, another product will be allocated there. He said GM is in talks with the CAW and the Canadian and Ontario governments to get a third product in Oshawa.

Mr. Clarke said the closing should not affect the half-billion dollars of funding the federal and provincial governments have given to the Beacon Project.