After meeting with General Motors executives for nearly three hours, Unifor is optimistic the GM plant in Oshawa can be kept open.
National Union Leader Jerry Dias and the leaders of the Oshawa local met with a senior leadership team at GM in Detroit Thursday.
After the meeting, Dias stopped in Windsor at the union's hall on Turner Rd. to explan what happened in the meeting.
"They [General Motors] know that they are actually taking on Canada ... this is going to have a very negative impact," says Dias, who says the ball is now in GM's court." Am I optimistic? the answer is yes."
Dias says the federal government could do what they did to Japanese automakers many years ago.
"They stopped all the Japanese vehicles in Vancouver, they held them up, they started to inspect the vehicles," Dias says.
He points out the automaker still owes Canada $2.8-billion and the federal government is pushing to have it repaid.
Dias adds it's not too late for the Ontario government to do the right thing.
He says the automaker has ramped up production of vehicles in Mexico in the wake of planned closures in Canada and the U.S.