General Motors has rejected a request by the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW) to force employees who don't drive a GM-manufactured vehicle to pay a $100 per year parking fee and park at the back of the lot at GM plants. Newsdurhamregion.com reports plant chairman Keith Osborne told GM president Arturo Elias "people need to understand there are economic consequences that accompany their choice of vehicle." Osborne says he wants to "send a message to our membership that it is important to support the industry." Opposing: Spokesman Stew Low. "It is our desire that consumers will choose GM vehicles because they are high quality, offer the safety features and value… they are looking for. While we appreciate the idea to promote GM cars and trucks, we have decided not to move forward with the idea the union presented as some of those non-GM vehicles may belong to visitors (or) suppliers." The CAW already restricts access to their own parking lots; vehicles not built by General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are banished to Siberia the farthest corner of the parking lot.
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Employees already have the incentive of the “employee discount” that everybody seems to qualify for now.
This looks more like the CAW is tilting at windmills. $100 and a better parking spot wouldn’t make me buy Cobalt over Civic… Not ever.
Maybe if the company forced the execs to drive their product… Things would improve. No union member needed to sign off on the Aztek.
Very one sided I would think, but then I wont be told what to do by a Union that takes its thoughts from the Top eg President of the CAW
I will add one more thought, what about all the Cars that bear the “bowtie” label that are made in Korea by GMDaewoo, will they ban them too?
Yeah! I’ve worked in that plant for 35 yrs.When I started in 1972,a Ford was a rare sight never mind a Honda.
We have a whole different generation of employee now.
9000 + production and skilled trade, and you can,t get 35 to show up for a union meeting.
Stew Low couldn’t decide what color socks to wear,if his boss didn’t tell e’m.
The lowest paid hourly worker in Oshawa is looking at 33$ CDN an hour.That translates to 75 K a yr with ten weeks paid vacation,Not to fu—n shabby EH!
I personally don’t think we need to make rule,thats say you gotta drive GM to park here huh?
People drive buy our employee lot and see new Toyotas and Nissons and BMWs, whata they think?
I know what they think.Whata these guys know that I don’t know?
This is what I know I’ve looked at GM for a pay check since I was 18 yrs old.So far they havn’t missed a week.My side of the deal is,I will drive and promote GM as long as I am capable of driving.
I was brought up to respect other peoples property, wich is the only reason I don’t piss on every Honda/Toyota/merc/
and KIA I pass in the parking lot every day.
Mikey – out of curiosity, how many GM products did you go through in those 35 years? Because that’s 3, maybe 4 vehicles in Honda years….
Please don’t piss on my Dodge if you see it parked there… it means I’m test-driving one of yours!!
@Blunozer: For what it’s worth, Arturo Elias recently visted the dealership I work at, and showed up in an STS.
DAVE 69 chevelle 72 to 75, 75 Parisienne to 80, 81 Monte Carlo to 85, 84 Caprice {what a sweet heart}to 96 Grand Am to 2001 Grand AM GT to 2000 Firebird rag top[my baby]
Then the wifes 70 Camaro and a 84,87 91 95 99 2003 Blazer/Jimmy.No effen Hondas, And if my 2 lovely daughters[now grown up] if thier boy friends showed up with an import,they parked on the street
So Mikey,
Do you drive GM purely from loyalty or do you really believe you help make the finest cars?
I think it is this kind of insularity to the rest of the auto world by GM management that has gotten them where they are.
GM management might learn plenty by talking to those workers with other brands of cars. Find out why they choose the other brand while depending on GM for their paycheck.
I agree wtih eslude; if GM wants a focus group to talk about why their cars arent selling, they should talk to their own employees who (like mikey has said) have the most invested in the success of the company, but drive the competitions cars.
Ryan:
@Blunozer: For what it’s worth, Arturo Elias recently visted the dealership I work at, and showed up in an STS.
An STS makes a pretty nice company car. I’d drive one too, if it was provided for me. When GM’s brass starts showing up driving Colorados, G5s, IONs, and Aveos, I’ll be impressed.
In Durham Region (Oshawa) for years GM was the major employeer, and influencer it all started with Colonel Sam.
Times change, it would seem that the union is more detached with the times, than GM.
Depending on the activity there is also a fleet of black Slades not just STS.
I think that somebody needs to explain to Buzz that Ontario and Michigan are in different countries. Canada only makes ‘imports’ whether it be Honda or Chevy. Sombody posted on TTAC a while ago making a good point about how, even though Honda and Toyota make cars in the US, all the profits go back to Japan defining them as an ‘import.’ Well, just as much proft goes across the border from Windsor to Detroit, making the Big 3 imports to us in Canada.
cgraham, You are so right, all vehicles made here in Ontario are foreign owned, Another fact is if GM vehicles are so good, why then is there a huge Class Action lawsuit on the go against GM over all those defective Gaskets on various V^ engines, namely the 3.1 and 3.4 also the 3.8?
I told the CAW that I’d gladly pay the $100 parking fee. Nothing starts my day off worse then seeing my BMW parked next to a GM product at the Oshawa plant. And don’t get me started about the door dings.
Just curious about something: Do any non-US car companies engage in this kind of childish, petulant behavior? Do Toyota employees who are brash enough to own Chevies have to park them elsewhere? Do VW workers who drive Fiats have to park at the back of the lot?
Talk about focusing on symbolism over substance. No wonder the domestics are in such big trouble, they are expending most of thier creative effort in stuffing their fingers deeper and deeper into their ears and and covering their eyes so they won’t see what’s happening out here in the real world. God help them.
@Gentle Ted: Tell me about it. My ’95 Grand Prix was a head gasket victim. $2000 for that, plus replacing brakes every 6 months, plus busted leaf spring, plus various faulty interior bits pretty much doubled my car payment. I took a hit on the dismal trade in value to buy a Civic Si… Never regreted it.
I never blamed the workers who put the car together. Just the bean counters who saved a penny whereever they could.
@Ryan, if Elias had shown up in a 6 year old STS… THAT would have been impressive.
@Mikey: You should read “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand (or at least the crib notes) supporting an inferior product just because its “the right thing to do” only leads to more mediocraty.
I have a friend that works at the Ford plant in St. Thomas and drives a Honda Civic. When asked why would he buy an import over the company that pays him, his answer is always , “I KNOW how the Fords are built here, and I would never trust my life to what we assemble”.
I think it was, or still is, GM who ordered all employees who rent cars while traveling on company business must demand a GM car. This was a number of years ago (90s?) when I read this.
At the time I thought it was the stupidest thing I had every heard. I felt that GM had it totally backwards. They should insist that when renting a car on business, they should rent anything BUT a GM car.
The reason is simple. They need to know what they are competing against. They need to experience what the average consumer is experiencing. After all, at the end of the day it is new customers that fund their paycheck. Not the GM travel budget.
They need to drive a Toyota, a Ford, a Nissan. Otherwise they simply live inside an isolate echo-chamber and only hear and see their own propaganda.
Blunozer I know who Ann Rand is and I think I can read the whole book.
Johnnycanada So let me get this straight you don’t like parking your BMW beside a GM product in the GM employee
parking lot?You get door dings?
Well johnny I have never knowingly door dinged another car domestic or otherwise,in the employee parking lot or any where else.
Not to worry johnny if the current trend of import buying continues.you won’t have to think about it cause you won’t have a job.
I’ll be the guy standing on the step waving at you as your leaving the plant.for the last time
With GM losing money on just about everything they sell, support GM by buying something else.
This whole thing is a farce. This isn’t about foreign vs domestic. If that were the case why are Buzz and boys trying so hard to get Honda and Toyota to unionize? Not only do Honda and Toyota know how to keep the CAW out, the workers at these plants have seen the CAW and UAW drain the life out of the Big 3. The CAW and UAW leaches will die right alongside Ford, GM and Chrysler.