Skilled Trades Association, CAW Local 199 St. Catharines (General Motors Unit) | ||||||
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Mr. Grimaldi Oh sure there are still a lot people still employed at GM with knowledge to pass on, however, there is no one left around to share their skill and knowledge with, except the clipboards. The people that just learned and were still learning how and what it takes to be the best are out the door. Recently GM St. Catharines was presented with another award for fastest ramp up (and other awards from Gen III days). I and many of the people laid off right now from the trades, built those projects and upgraded them beyond their initial ideas, based on our skill and knowledge. We often exceeded the expectations of plant engineers and machinery representatives. This was accomplished only by having the specialized skills and knowledge learned in the GM environment. Upon completion of these projects many of the trades involved in bringing this factory to world class level were laid off and discarded. Once, after receiving accolades for completing a construction project ahead of time and allowing the rest of the process to also complete early, the people responsible for doing this feat were criticized for being non competitive. Go figure. With all the attention that GM St. Catharines gets it is no wonder that there are so many clipboards walking around. (25% management overhead) In my time at GM St. Catharines I saw a lot of clipboards gathering information and trying to learn the things we do to be the best. I can understand GM management trying to learn what it takes to be the best from us - we are the people that earn GM managers the awards. The trouble is, the knowledge we have, to work and be the best, is not the type of knowledge that can be gathered and shared with the corporation. To be the best is an attitude that is learned and shared amongst people that you work with, not gathered by clipboards. The basic fabric of what makes GM St. Catharines the best is being eroded away by the very things that are happening here right now. The next generation is being laid off. Their skill, knowledge and ideas will be lost to GM. To top it off, the remaining people that have the knowledge and skill that make GM St. Catharines the best, are going to retire soon. Just look at the numbers. To make things worse, the trades that are left behind are not being trained on how to maintain the new investment at the level that GM requires to be the best. Training programs are slow to start or are non existent. These are the kind of things that in the past made GM St. Catharines the best. The way things are now everyone left to run the factory is needed on site to maintain the new investment. They can not be released from the site to upgrade their skills because they are required on site all the time. Now the next generation of trades, the ones that know what it takes to be the best, and that are the acknowledged and proven best, are being laid off and traded in for clipboards trying to acquire the knowledge that you already had in those laid off workers. This is creating the downfall of the best as I see it. Unless investment is made in people as well as in equipment at GM St. Catharines I see the best of the best loosing a battle that they are unequipped to win. The people, skill and knowledge that makes GM St. Catharines the best will have retired. To top it all off the next generation from GM is on the street trying to work to feed their families. That worker is becoming less and less secure in his knowledge of his future with GM St. Catharines and is working in Oshawa with more of the best. Or he quits GM altogether and is giving his proven best to someone else. Ideas were expressed about maintaining employment of these laid off trades people but those ideas have since fallen by the wayside. I think that there are a number of things that management can do to keep us employed at GM St. Catharines. Many ideas have already been presented by an intelligent, well prepared Union leadership to GM management. Unless or until a shift in perception is made by GM management I think that what makes us the best will be lost. My Union leadership sees this and is trying to do something about it but they are meeting a lot of resistance and short-sightedness. I am surprised that the long-term planning people of the corporation can not see the writing on the wall. By not using your next generation of GM tradesman to train and teach the future GM tradesman to be the best, you will end up with a future of second best outside contractors. Mr. Grimaldi, I want to work for GM. I think the corporation needs all of its laid off tradesmen. Tradesmen are a waning resource and I think it is in your best interest to not let us go. Keep us on and allow your other tradesmen time away from the factory to upgrade their skills. Keep us on and stop hiring outside contractors to do what we laid off tradesmen can do. Just keep us on for GM St. Catharines' future. We can do the job the best! | ||||||
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