GM workers in Oshawa, Ont., brace for 'the fight of our lives' in auto talks

Just over a year ago, Corina and Joe Colacicco both employees at the General Motors facility in Oshawa, Ont., soldtheir house and bought a bigger one to accommodate their growingfamily.

Today, the couple is contemplating what might happen to them andtheir four-year-old son if GM decides to close up shop in thesouthern Ontario city just east of Toronto.

"We've got all our eggs in one basket," says Joe, whose fatherspent 30 years working for GM before retiring several years ago."I grew up on a GMpaychequemy whole life, like most of myfamily has, so it's hard to even fathom the thought that they mightnot be there one day."

• Invest in Canada, Unifor tells Detroit Three ahead of contract talks

Oshawa is a ground zero of sorts for the ongoing contractnegotiations, which kicked off last month, between the Detroit Threeautomakers and its unionized workers.

The plant, whose future is on the line, represents the strugglebetween the union's desire to keep investment in Canada and effortsby the Detroit Three to move production to jurisdictions such asMexico and the southern U.S., where labour and power costs arelower.

GM's operations in Oshawa include two production lines. Theconsolidated line, which produces the Chevrolet Equinox, wasoriginally expected to close in 2005 but continues to operate.

It is scheduled to close next year, and if that happens, Joeexpects he'll be shown the door.

As a supplemental workforce employee, Joe doesn't enjoy the samepay, benefits or job security that his wife Corina, an employee of14 years, does. Over the past decade he has been laid off severaltimes before being called back to work.

But even the flex line, which Corina works on, faces an uncertainfuture.

The flex line produces the Chevrolet Impala, the Buick Regal andthe Cadillac XTS, but it has no product scheduled past 2019.

That has given rise to concerns that the automaker could beplanning to pull out of Oshawa entirely.

"We could be shut down by 2019 with no jobs whatsoever inOshawa," says Jeremy Pooler, the strike co-ordinator for UniforLocal 222, which represents workers at the roughly 100-year-oldplant.

"I could stand to lose my job."

General Motors employs more than 4,800 people in Oshawa,according to the automaker.

But it isn't just direct GM jobs that would be lost if thecompany shuts down the plant, Unifor says. The union estimates thatmore than 20,000 indirect jobs could also be affected from parts makers that supply the plant to local restaurants and otherbusinesses that cater to GM employees.

Unifor president Jerry Dias has said that securing new investmentin Canadian assembly facilities is the union's top priority.

Future of GM hot topic in talks

On Tuesday, the union is expected to announce the company it willtarget in negotiations and it says any agreement it strikes wouldserve as a template for talks with the other two automakers, aprocess known as pattern bargaining.

The future of GM's operations in Oshawa has been a hot topic inthe discussions, says Pooler.

"Our main concern every time we go to bargaining is a future forOshawa -- a product for Oshawa," says Pooler, who has worked at GMfor 12 years.

The automaker has said it won't commit to a new product untilafter a deal has been reached.

That leaves the Oshawa plant, GM's first manufacturing facilityin Canada, and its workers in limbo.

"It would be very hard," says Corina, sitting in her livingroom in Courtice, Ont., while contemplating the possibility of theplant's closure.

"We'd have to go elsewhere, I guess, and look for jobs."

But, she adds, the workers are not about to give up.

"We're in for the fight of our lives."