Workplace Restructuring and Institutional Change: GM Oshawa from 1994 to 2019

This paper examines the evolution of three key institutional systems—CAW/UNIFOR unions, General Motors Canada, and the Canadian federal State—and their impact on workplace relations in Oshawa over a 25-year period. It places particular focus on union policies and shows that important opportunities for workplace transition were lost as local and national leaders avoided critical economic issues and failed to seriously contend with changing objective conditions.