Unifor to run Super Bowl ad on boycotting Mexican-made GM vehicles
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Canada’s largest private sector union is taking its General Motors boycott campaign to the Super Bowl.
Unifor, which represents 315,000 employees including GM workers, has paid for an ad to run during Sunday’s broadcast of the NFL’s championship game, telling consumers to not buy Mexican-made GM cars as part of its campaign after the announcement of the closure of the company’s assembly plant in Oshawa last November. The ad, which will broadcast in both English and French, says that when GM needed help, it received a $10.8-billion bailout from Canadians and in return the company continued to expand in Mexico.
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It ends with the tag line, “You may have forgotten our generosity, but we’ll never forget your greed. You want to sell here. Build here.”
“Canadian consumers have the power to choose which products they buy,” Unifor National president Jerry Dias said in a press release. “We will do everything we can to show people how to tell GM they will not purchase vehicles made in Mexico from a company that is putting thousands of Canadians out of work.”
He added the company “must build a more balanced manufacturing footprint across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico,” and halt the exploitation of Mexican workers.”
This comes after a Friday press conference where Dias announced the boycott, calling GM, “Greedy Motors.”
“If the VIN starts with three, that vehicle is not for me,” he said.
Vehicle identification numbers that start with the number “3” are made in Mexico. A second Unifor ad, which will also debut this weekend, shares a similar sentiment.
GM Canada initially responded to the boycott that it would create “collateral damage” across the wider Ontario economy which has more than 60 auto parts companies that support Mexican production.
In its Friday statement, GM said it has invested more than $100 billion into Canada through manufacturing, purchased goods and services since 2009, and over $8 billion in worker pensions.
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“GM Canada continues to build where it sells in Canada with production at its plant in Ingersoll alone roughly equal to its total retail sales in Canada,” the company said. “On Nov. 26, 2018, GM confirmed that it does not have a viable business case for production at the Oshawa Assembly plant past the end of this year because of a number of economic factors, including rapid changes in the North American car market, the cancellation of Oshawa products and persistent low utilization at the plant.”
The plant closure affects 4,400 jobs at GM Oshawa and its parts suppliers in Ontario.
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