CAMI Ingersoll workers vote 97 per cent in favour of strike if executive and GM cannot come to a deal

It is contract time for CAMI Ingersoll employees and members have overwhelmingly voted to strike if General Motors doesn’t meet their demands.

Sunday at Centennial Hall, Unifor members voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action, if necessary.

“Our biggest thing is job security as working two weeks on and two weeks off, it's killed our membership,” said Mike Van Boekel, plant chair at GM CAMI.

Since the last contract started three years ago, members still have not found full time employment. Workers continue to work for two weeks and rotate two weeks off.

“It's been really tough,” added Van Boekel. “It has really hurt families, hurts the community and we need them to step up to figure out a way to get everybody working full time.”

GM CAMI plant chair Mike Van Boekel speaks to CTV London at Centennial Hall in London, Ont. on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2024. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)

CAMI employee, Juli Franklin, described the last few years as “a wild ride of ups and downs”.

“You're either working or not working and needing to get additional money somehow,” said Franklin. “Everybody's trying to find side jobs on their off time.”

This contract is going to be huge for the plant’s junior members. With CAMI teetering on one shift for three years now, they are very nervous, despite GM’s $2 billion investment in the plant.

“We're waiting for GM to make a decision,” said Van Boekel. “If we're going to go to one shift, unfortunately, we're probably going to lose at least 300 people. If we can figure a way out of this, we can get everybody back to work.”

In a statement to CTV News, General Motors said, "“General Motors Canada is committed to working with our Unifor partners to create a new labour contract for CAMI employees.”

By law, the Unifor executive is required to run a strike mandate vote 30 days before ratification.

If the board and GM come to an agreement on a contract, it will be Sept. 22. So Sunday, employees gathered to hold a strike mandate vote to give permission to strike if necessary.

“We’ve already started talks and we're going to the hotel another week and hopefully hammer out a deal and get a tentative agreement by Sept. 22,” said Van Boekel.

During negotiations, they will be exploring options to get two consistent shifts back in operation.

CAMI employees put their strike mandate ballot into the box at Centennial Hall in London, Ont. on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2024. (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)

“We could try and get the stamping shop running again, as they’ve been down for three years,” said Van Boekel.

“We could slow the lines down and just spread our work that we have over two lines and slow down a little bit. We could offer incentives for people to retire if they want to leave GM, just to shrink our workforce, but just get enough so we can either run two shifts or bring work in. We could shrink wrap our own vehicles, there's a lot of different options.”

All of those options are in search of getting members back to full-time employment.

“Times are tough,” said Franklin.

“The economy has changed so much, and even just mentally to be back at work steady would be amazing for everybody.”

If the Unifor Local 88 board can get a contract done, members will return on Sept. 22 for a ratification vote on the deal.