General Motors is seeking to halt “illegal strike activities” following the company’s decision to shutter its Oshawa plant and slash 2,600 unionized jobs — claiming that ensuing protests have “significantly compromised” GM’s ability to sell products, damaged the company’s reputation and are an “unacceptable safety risk” to employees and the public.In an application to the Ontario Labour Relations Board obtained by the Star, GM says Unifor, the union representing Oshawa workers, orchestrated walkouts, sit-ins and “rolling blockades” after the company announced in November that it would shutter its plant at the end of 2019 after a century of operations. “This activity is part of an ongoing tactical plan to engage in illegal activity as a means of protest against actions by GM Canada that Unifor opposes,” says the application, expected to be heard Thursday.The company is seeking an order to cease the protests and compensation for unspecified costs incurred due to “unlawful acts.”Under Ontario law, workers can’t strike while a collective bargaining agreement between a company and a union is in force. In its response to GM’s application, Unifor says the company has already violated “express language” in that agreement that “promised it would not close or sell any plant” until September 2020, when their contract was set to expire.The union filed a separate grievance on the plant closure in late 2018 that has yet to be ruled on.Read more:Opinion | Rosie DiManno: Sting’s concert in Oshawa was a grenade tossed at GMGM confirms Oshawa Assembly Plant will stop production in 2019, affecting more than 2,500 jobsA timeline of GM’s century of building cars in OshawaUnifor’s response to GM’s application says a recent economic impact study shows the closure would result in 24,000 jobs lost across the country by 2025, when tak ...
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