The Vice President of Corporate Affairs for General Motors Canada is confident cooler heads will prevail when it comes to Unifor protesting the closure of the Oshawa GM plant.
David Paterson and a team from GM met with Premier Doug Ford at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Tuesday to discuss the closure and Unifor President Jerry Dias' pledge to fight the decision to the bitter end.
Paterson says having workers walk off the assembly line in other cities hurts everyone.
"Our suppliers serve companies in Windsor. They serve companies in the United States. So when Jerry takes these types of approaches what he's really doing is sending out a really bad message for investment in Ontario and he's hurting other people in different businesses, not just General Motors."
He says he's confident cooler heads will prevail.
"We're going to be extraordinarily generous when Jerry gets to sitting down with us eventually to discuss how we can transition our people, but to take the types of approaches where you hold other companies and other sectors hostage because of your campaign is just really irresponsible."
Unifor president Jerry Dias speaks to more than a thousand people at a rally in Windsor on January 11, 2019. ( photo by Peter Langille / AM800 News )
Paterson says, despite what Dias claims, GM is heading in the right direction.
"We're not shipping any jobs to Mexico. That's just a lie. We've invested over $3-billion in Ontario. We paid $4-billion into our pension funds which are fully funded and that supports Unifor workers. So let's leave the lies behind and let's focus on what we can do positive for the economy."
Paterson says, while the closure of the Oshawa plant was front and centre at the meeting with the Premier, there was also talk about the company's plans moving forward.
According to Paterson, Ford was happy to hear about a thousand new jobs coming down the pipe in the high tech sector in Toronto, Markham and Kapuskasing.
He adds, "GM will be looking to Ontario to be one of the hottest growth areas for new software technology in the auto sector."