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.

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Unifor’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 taking into account the impact on suppliers who make parts for the auto giant.

The response adds that Unifor organized solidarity events and rallies “in an attempt to communicate the importance of the auto industry to the Canadian economy, both to government and the public at large.”

GM’s allegations “pertain to isolated incidents which occurred several weeks ago and were quickly resolved,” according to the union.

The demonstrations described by the company include GM workers walking out of the plant immediately following the closure announcement on Nov. 26, as well as attending a Unifor meeting in response to the news that workers would be out of a job.

The company’s application quotes the union plant chair telling colleagues it was “one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do to walk out on the assembly line and tell men and women to leave their job and go home.” The application said this was evidence he “authorized, called, counselled and procured an illegal strike.”

The application also says that after GM told Unifor on Jan. 8 it would not reconsider its decision to close the plant, the company was “forced to abandon production” on its second shift due to workers staging a sit-down protest.

GM also cited a “rolling blockade” of the plant on Jan. 17, in which vehicles sporting Unifor flags “surrounded the Oshawa plant and clogged the roadway.”

Unifor later prevented GM employees from accessing GM’s Canadian headquarters by setting up “check points” manned by security guards who were “retained by Unifor” and “dressed in fatigues and wore bulletproof vests,” according to GM’s application.

David Doorey, a labour and employment law professor at York University, said Ontario labour laws create a “very narrow legal right to strike,” although illegal strike applications aren’t particularly common because illegal strike activities rarely happen and usually end quickly — negating the need for a labour board battle.

“Employers tend to file these applications when tensions are ongoing and they fear more strikes ahead,” Doorey said.

“If the strike ended quickly, the labour board can decide that there’s no point in holding a hearing at all and simply dismiss the application. Unifor appears to be asking for the labour board to do just that in this case.”

“Since the definition of a strike is so broad in Ontario, virtually every concerted work refusal during a collective agreement is illegal, so the law is very much on the side of employers,” he added.

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“Having said that, the usual remedy ordered by the labour board amounts to little more than a declaration of an illegal strike and an order to not do it again.”

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In its response to GM’s application, Unifor said its demonstrations outside the plant may have delayed access to one or more gates at the plant, but other gates remained unimpeded and production continued. It said the blockade outside GM headquarters did not impact plant production and “therefore cannot be construed to be an illegal strike.”

Workers at two GM suppliers represented by Unifor have also walked off the job in protest of the Oshawa plant closure, according to GM. One of those suppliers, Inteva, filed a separate illegal strike application in January.

In a statement to the Star, Unifor president Jerry Dias said GM was “failing to keep its promise to workers to keep this plant open until our collective agreement expires in September of 2020 and we will continue to hold GM accountable until they do the right thing and revise plans for the Oshawa Assembly Plant.”

“Their betrayal is not only to their own employees but to all Canadians who supported them when they were facing bankruptcy.” In 2009, the Canadian government provided almost $14 billion in aid to the country’s struggling auto sector including GM, of which a total of $3.5 billion was never recouped.

GM’s application does not specify how much it is seeking in compensation from Unifor and did not respond to specific questions from the Star about remedies.

“This court application was in response to some previous Unifor actions. As the matter is before the courts, we have no further comment at this time,” said GM director of communications Jennifer Wright.

GM’s Oshawa plant manufactures approximately 680 cars and trucks with an estimated value of $35 million a day, according to the company’s submissions.

“Unifor has weighed the legal risks of its actions and has decided on a course of action it believes is the best way forward to protect its members. Very few of the big labour battles in Canada, or anywhere for that matter, have been won or lost in litigation,” Doorey said.

“This battle involving the GM closure will be decided on the streets and in the hearts and minds of the public and automobile consumers.”

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