GM won’t budge on plant closure

DETROIT—General Motors has rebuffed an attempt by its Canadian union to win a reprieve for a pickup truck plant slated for shutdown, sticking to its contention that a shift in consumer attitudes has devastated demand for the vehicles.
A one-hour meeting in Detroit today between the company’s senior executives and union leaders failed to produce any promise that the Oshawa, Ont. plant will remain open, dashing the hopes of the Canadian Auto Workers, which had hoped to find a compromise.

“We’re walking away extremely disappointed. We still feel betrayed,” CAW president Buzz Hargrove said after the meeting with GM CEO Rick Wagoner, chief financial officer Fritz Henderson, and GM Canada president Arturo Elias.
“They’re still saying that things changed radically enough that they can’t live up to their commitment.”
The union contends the plant shutdown, which will put 2,600 employees out of work next year, violates a collective agreement signed in May, in which the union agreed to several concessions to maintain the jobs.
It says the automaker promised Oshawa would build a new generation of light-duty trucks to be introduced in 2011 in exchange for millions of dollars in labour cost reductions.