The strike I would say we never wanted it to happen but it did happen and I would
say our membership's solidary and camaraderie and friendship grew more than
you could ever imagine out on the picket lines.
We are here for 88 and for everybody in our family.
We are here for the community.
Our Fight is their fight.
The community has reached out we've got a lot of suppliers that are here today
who are no longer working
and if we can keep our plant for 20 more years they'll have jobs for 20 more years
and that's what a community is all about.
On the line it wasn't them and us and you, it was all of us.
It was all of us out there fighting for a future and we were doing it together.
The support we're getting; buses coming daily, rallies, it's unheard of.
We brought 40 retirees and a few actives from the plant and from SpencerARL,
which tells me they love their union and they're supporting the CAMI workers 100%.
I've been retired for 23 years but we still go and support any rally or any strikers that we possibly can.
I've been here for 12 years fortunate for me I've never been part of a strike
but just seeing the the solidarity and everyone come together as one unit has
been pretty special.
Every single person that I've talked to who was here for the strike 25 years ago
has remarked how different the responses from the
community-at-large towards us as members.
When the word community comes out I just swell with pride I live in town I live in
Ingersoll and I've never seen so much support.
I think everybody in the community they know somebody that's impacted
and being such a big employer everybody can relate to it.
We put the big Canada Matters flag up at our south gate
and everybody from all over was coming in and signing it.
I had calls from the U.S. from out in Vancouver from Winnipeg expressing support and keep up
the fight and if you need anything call us.
I traveled here with my dad today to say these four things: communities need good
jobs, workers deserve good pay and dignity, the youth need a future in their
locality and lastly NAFTA sucks.
It's not only the future of our plant and our factory it's the future for her with Canadian jobs.
and so it's a lot bigger than us.
This fight, this strike is the poster child for what is wrong with NAFTA.
There is no way that there will be a free trade deal signed unless we fix the Mexican problem
and the Mexican problem is where our jobs are going
and this fight is about changing the politics of the country,
this fight is about letting General Motors know, yes they are tough,
but we are one hell of a tough group ourselves and we're not going anywhere.
A lot of our strike was about trying to negotiate job security for 2,800 people
plus the thousands that it affects, the suppliers.
We were not able to get the letter but we put a, we put a hell of a financial penalty in place against GM
up to two hundred and ninety million dollars now if they think they're going to
lay us off or if they think they're going to close our plant there is a huge
monetary penalty in place in black and white and it's rock-solid and I do
believe it'll be a very hard deterrent for them to try and lay us off
or close the plant in the future.
I think it's very important that we as a
union and as a local help our members when they most need it.
We negotiated language that is innovative around domestic violence, paid domestic violence leave
for any member of our local.
Some of the language that the company has held
forever in near and dear to their heart during the strike we were able to break
it you want to come back with a lot of stuff
by far the biggest we came back with was job security.
All people want to do is come to work, do a good job, make a
make a living for their family and that's all this is about.
To continue to build good products for General Motors making them profitable
and keeping our families fed in in our community secure.
This has made us very strong, it's brought our
brothers and sisters back together, being out here together as united us... 100%.
I'm in assembly all the way at the other end of the plant like stamping and welding
and I've met so many new people it's incredible and everyone's so happy and helping.
We're all in this, we all want the same outcome and we're all a family now.
I was overwhelmed actually by the support in the community,
the solidarity of our members.
I think what I learned most is our bargaining committee was doing what they had to do
for all of us, in our best interest.
and it help me sleep at night.