UPDATE 1-GM Canada workers step up protests at Oshawa plant

(Recasts lead, adds quotes)

By Frank McGurty

TORONTO, June 7 (Reuters) - Canadian autoworkers on Saturday stepped up protests against plans to close a General Motors (GM.N) truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario.

They drove hundreds of cars slowly around the factory in an action they said disrupted parts deliveries and briefly shut down production.

A spokesman for the Canadian Auto Workers, which has staged a four-day blockade of the General Motors of Canada headquarters in Oshawa, said the convoy was "a second phase" that marked an escalation of the union's strategy to win a reversal of GM's decision to close the plant next year.

Since GM this week said it would close four truck plants in North America, workers have blocked a road leading GM Canada's headquarters in Oshawa, about 40 miles (60 km) east of Toronto, preventing office workers from getting to their jobs.

CAW spokesman Keith Osborne said the convoy lasted about three hours and involved about 250 cars.

He said it slowed traffic enough to prevent trucks from getting through the plant's main gate to deliver parts, leading GM to shut production lines briefly at the truck plant and a nearby car plant.

Osborne said it was not the union's intention to disrupt GM's operations.

"We're doing this to get information out, to show solidarity, to show GM that they can't violate our contract," he said.

A GM spokesman could not by reached immediately to confirm whether production was stopped or to comment on the union's actions.

The truck plant, which makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, employs about 2,600 hourly workers. It is one of the four North American plants that GM said it will close to cut capacity and shift production toward more fuel-efficient cars as record gasoline prices depress truck sales.

Osborne told CBC television that until Saturday the union never touched production.

"This is us actually coming out to the worksite," he said, referring to the union's expansion of the protests beyond the blockade of the headquarters.

Osborne said union leaders were planning to meet later on Saturday to decide on "phase 3" of the protests. He declined to be more specific.

VERY DISAPPOINTED