Canada: CAW bureaucracy ends protest at GM headquarters

The union had been demonstrating outside GMs headquarters since June 4th to protest the companys decision to close its truck plant in Oshawa in mid-2009, as part of a downsizing plan that will also see the axe fall on two GM truck and sport utility facilities in the United States and one in Mexico.

The 13-day protest action was an entirely meek and cynical affair. During the protest CAW officials quietly allowed white-collar workers to gain access to the office tower, if GM deemed them necessary to its operations. For its part, GM executives instructed their less essential staff to activate their business contingency plans and work from home or at backup facilities. Both company officials and union bureaucrats recognized the protest for what it wasan exercise by the CAW leadership to head off any potential militant response from the rank-and-file to the closure announcement by providing a high-profile, but nonetheless harmless, avenue for angry workers to blow off some steam.

That the closure protest had no intention of disrupting actual vehicle production was borne out at the court proceedings last Friday