Catherwood LibraryILR School

Next week, three separate Toyota plants in Ontario will hold union certification votes in a move which could make those plants the company?s only unionized plants in the U.S. or Canada. Unifor is the union which collected the signatures of more than 40% of the employees at the Cambridge, Ontario plant. The facilities in North America operated by foreign-owned car manufacturers have been particularly difficult for unions to organize, and the Toyota plants in Canada are no different. After the U.A.W.?s defeat in Chattanooga, Tennessee, unions have ramped up their efforts and have focused on selling increased benefits and security as opposed to wages which are fairly standardized within the industry at the province and state level. Unifor?s president, Jerry Dias, emphasized that the organizing drive has nothing to do with Toyota being a bad employer, but rather a response to some recent changes to working hour, conditions, and benefits that he believes the employees did not have enough input into.