| | This article appeared in the St. Catharines Standard on March 3, 2005 page A3 Ceremony at GM plant had feel of something cobbled together
When in doubt, I go for the sports analogy. And so it is that I compare St. Catharines' reaction to Wednesday's provincewide announcement of riches for the auto industry to that of a benchwarmer on a team that's just won the championship. You're happy the team won, but you would have appreciated more playing time. Making your reduced role harder to swallow is that you've performed well when given the opportunity to do so. Stupid coach!
All that new money announced for General Motors operations in Oshawa and Ingersoll; a relatively small amount of previously allocated cash announced for St. Catharines.
Makes you think an item high on the list for local negotiators this contract year should be the start of a high speed, dedicated train service between here and the Oshawa plants. After all, the current bus service can be disrupted by traffic tie-ups - And, let's face it, a ferry service simply wouldn't work in the winter.
Just kidding. I think.
Time for a welcome, however brief, break from putting a gloomy spin on Wednesday's massive investment news.
Enhancements worth $23 million to the Glendale plant's V-8 engine line are nothing to sneeze at. Securing 29 jobs in the process is better than a kick in the pants, too. From a larger perspective, retaining any sort of foothold in cutting-edge technology is a very good thing for those involved in the highly competitive auto industry. And while GM workers here reap the most direct benefit from these investments by at least stabilizing their employment situation, the Niagara community gains as well.
GM may have lost more than half its St. Catharines workforce in the past 15 years, but it's still Niagara's most powerful industrial engine. Heck, there are probably more people playing euchre in the GM cafeteria during lunch than there are people employed year-round in Niagara's wine industry.
So thanks for the $23 million. The guys and gals working in the engine plant deserved it.
It's just that Wednesday's ceremony at the Glendale plant had the feel of something cobbled together to make St. Catharines feel like it was part of something that really wasn't. Indeed, despite the presence of the usual slap-happy suspects - company brass, politicians, government bureaucrats - the ceremony was a somewhat muted affair. Plenty of earnest talk about how St. Catharines remains an important spot in the GM universe and how the V-8 enhancement will likely increase the life expectancy of that engine line.
Still, there was no one going around shouting yabba-dabba-doo over the news, and I didn't seen any champagne corks being popped.
Given what was happening elsewhere in the province, too much enthusiasm may not have gone over too well on the plant floor. The reality of the GM situation in St. Catharines the past decade is that the company isn't in the business of providing positive surprises.
If new work wasn't negotiated for the city's plants during contract time, it ain't coming.
Doug Orr, plant chairman of CAW Local 199's GM unit, said Wednesday the company has met all the job commitments it agreed to in the fall of 2002. What's frustrating, though, said Orr, is the company hasn't shown any inclination to reward the St. Catharines plants with additional work beyond the contract commitments, no matter how
solid a job they do. Needless to say, this makes for stressful contract negotiations.
Orr said the big fight this fall will be to ensure GM comes up with more work for the Ontario Street plant, whose job losses of late have raised suspicions the company would like to phase it out.
Hey, it beats fighting for that high speed train to Oshawa.
Doug Herod's opinion column appears in the St. Catharines Standard Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached by e-mail at: dherod@stcatharinesstandard.ca |
