‘Nothing comes in and nothing goes out’: Unifor threatens takeover of CAMI in bid to keep plant open

Unifor members prepare to take over the CAMI plant as concerns grow about the future of the facility. Bryan Bicknell explains.

In its latest update, the union representing workers at the GM CAMI BrightDrop electric vehicle plant in Ingersoll, Ont. says it’s prepared to take drastic action in its bid to keep the plant open.

In an update to members, Unifor Local 88 Plant Chair Mike Van Boekel said “…we have made our position with the company crystal clear: nothing comes in and nothing goes out. If they try to remove even one single thing from the plant, we are ready to take over. We are not kidding. We are fighting to ensure CAMI stays open…”

“When you see a union openly opining to the media that they are willing to block entrance into the building, they might know something that you and I don’t know right now, and that’s concerning,” said Mike Tucker in response to the statement.

Tucker is a business and economics professor at Fanshawe College who has been closely following the developments with CAMI. He says the latest moves between GM and Unifor do not bode well for the plant’s future.

“There’s a lot of new equipment in that plant that somebody is going to value. You know, thinking really extreme, is there another automaker that would consider trying to adopt as much as they can of the plant…” he said.

“Was some concern by the union that they may be removing some of this brand-new machinery and equipment and may be employing it elsewhere. And that’s where we start to see stories that they’re going to try and make that difficult,” said Tucker.

The comments from Unifor Local 88 follow a meeting in Ingersoll this week involving the union, Ingersoll Mayor Brian Petrie, and Industry Minister Melanie Joly.

According to the update, Joly and her team expressed “support for our members and our community, and their willingness to engage with the issues facing CAMI gives us reason to be hopeful about the future of our plant and our jobs.”

Petrie tells CTV News he’s encouraged talks are ongoing, but he does have some concerns.

“I certainly don’t want anything bad to happen in our community or anything like that. So, you want to make sure people are going home safe at night. My hope is that the negotiations and the talking provides a good outcome, and it doesn’t need to come to anything,” Petrie said.

In 2021 the plant was re-tooled to make EVs. That cost approximately $2 billion, with about $500 million coming from Canadian and Ontario taxpayers.

Last month GM announced it was stopping production of the BrightDrop due to low customer demand.

On Oct. 23, Joly gave GM 15 days to provide plans for the next steps for the plant.

So far there have been no updates.

“If the plan is no longer to exist here. I think there’s further discussion of ‘let’s talk about the investment money that was just put in.’ In just my opinion, this does not look good. This looks like it could be the end,” Tucker said.