News From the Auto Industry

With no other option the workers walked out on strike April 8. But resources were scarce and late in that same month it looked as though the GM employees would be forced back to work under the same miserable conditions as before.

A 30-year design veteran at General Motors Corp., Welburn succeeded Wayne Cherry as design chief.

Then UAW international president Homer Martin came to Oshawa and presented local union head Charlie Millard with a $100,000 cheque to see the strike through to a successful conclusion. This was a bold move because the UAW was just starting out as a union in 1937, and it was stretched to its limits in places such as Detroit and Flint, Michigan.

Welburn, 52, executive director in charge of body-on-frame architectures for GM Design, is now vice president of design for North America, and fully assumes Cherry’s responsibilities, which include day-to-day management of GM Design, membership on the GM North America Strategy Board and oversight of GM’s Global Design Council.

GM and newspapers of the day were all greatly impressed by this financial solidarity. A contract settlement soon followed with substantial gains made by the newly unionized workers in Oshawa.