- Oct 11, 1999
- 7,804
- 1
- 0
From the Windsor Star:
"Dead meat"
Warning to autoworkers: Save jobs, buy domestic
By Doug Williamson Star Staff Reporter
Friday, January 09, 2004
DOMESTIC OR DEAD MEAT: CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza talks about the new campaign to encourage the purchase of domestic automobiles.
Autoworkers who own imported vehicles are "dead meat," CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza said Thursday during a news conference outlining the union's campaign to promote the sales of domestically built vehicles.
"I think any autoworker that buys a car that takes food off their own table is being ridiculous," Lewenza said later.
While the union has no plans to harass ordinary consumers who buy foreign cars, it will exert pressure on local autoworkers and boycott area businesses that do not openly support the "buy domestic" campaign.
Billboards have already started to appear, and will point out that for every assembly job, 7.5 spinoff jobs are created. CAW Locals 200, 444 and 1973 representing Ford, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors workers in Windsor are paying for the 12-month, $200,000 campaign.
Mike Vince, president of Local 200, said the union will approach businesses in Windsor and Essex County to display, or use in advertising, a special logo. Anyone not agreeing will be subject to a union boycott, he said.
"If those people aren't going to support us, we're not going to support them," he said, adding that he expects most businesses to support the campaign.
Lewenza said a web page is being prepared that will offer consumers information on the CAW campaign, including which vehicles the union supports buying.
Basically, any vehicle with a Chrysler, Ford or GM nameplate is acceptable, Vince said. But vehicles owned by those companies and made overseas, such as Mercedes, Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, are not, he said.
Toyota and Honda products are grudgingly accepted by the union because those companies have built assembly plants in Canada. But Nissan products are not, Vince said.
Vince, Lewenza and other union leaders said the CAW campaign is aimed at Windsor and Essex County residents whose prosperity depends largely on well-paid auto assembly jobs from employers who have a long history of building vehicles in this country.
Consumers need to be "educated" about the importance of buying so-called domestic cars, they said, but they stressed that ordinary consumers will not be harassed or ridiculed for driving foreign cars.
"Our union is not going to go out there and ridicule the consumer," Lewenza said.
CAW members are another story, said Lewenza, saying any autoworker driving a foreign car should be ashamed.
While recognizing there are unionized workers in the city who make parts for vehicles not supported in this campaign, Vince said they are in a minority.
Gary Parent, president of the Windsor and District Labour Council, said the campaign is not a self-serving attempt to preserve unionized jobs, warning that the economic prosperity of the entire region hinges on well-paying auto jobs.
Lewenza and Vince said at least two area Ford dealers have already agreed to support the campaign, but the union is not asking for support from the companies themselves.
"They have no loyalty to Canada," Lewenza said. "General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are not our partners, they are our employers."
One area dealer, Gus Revenberg, sells General Motors, Saturn and GM-owned vehicles by Isuzu and Saab, as well as Volkswagen, Infiniti and Nissan.
Revenberg said he had mixed feelings about the campaign, particularly since his GM product sales dropped 23 per cent last year while Nissan sales rose 30 per cent.
"On the Nissan side, all the products are new. It's new and it's very different from what the other manufacturers are doing."
He said 50 of his 180 employees are involved in selling Nissan, VW, Saab and Isuzu vehicles, and said many foreign products have new styling compared to many domestic ones.
ANOTHER VIEW
Auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers asks why the CAW is trying to punish the Big 3 and autoparts makers with its newly announced ?buy domestic' policy. His letter to the editor is on A9
Facebook
Twitter