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World’s auto unions meet in Toronto

20 October, 2015Some 65 trade union members from 19 countries representing workers at all the world’s auto companies met in Toronto, Canada for the annual meeting of the Automotive Working Group from 13 to 15 October. 

The meeting was hosted by UNIFOR union, which organizes the auto sector in Canada.

The Automotive Working Group is the global network of unions and work councils in the industry. Each company-based union network reported their concrete work plan, which is mostly focused on organizing non-organized plants and strengthening unions by including them into the particular networks. 

Participants also heard compelling reports about the future of production and mobility.

The Industry 4.0 report addressed the challenges to trade unions posed by connected cars, autonomous driving and next generation manufacturing. It provoked a lively discussion and participants stressed the need for preparing all unions to play an active role in this development.

IndustriALL director, Brian Kohler, also spoke about sustainability and climate change, which is an important issue for the automotive industry.

At the meeting, unionists passed a resolution supporting their Mexican colleagues working at Finish auto parts company, PKC, in their organizing efforts. They also made a declaration of solidarity to colleagues at Volkswagen condemning the emissions scandal and demanding that workers do not suffer as a consequence.

Finally, participants decided to hold the Automotive World Conference in Munich, Germany in November 2016.