There are now two classes of workers in the General Motors of Canada Ltd. plant in St. Catharines, Ont. -- those who drive GM cars and those who don't.

Beginning Monday, any employees who dare park their Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, Fords or Dodges in the main lot along a well-travelled city street will find them towed away.

To avoid this harsh fate, non-GM autos must relocate to a smaller, less prominent lot to the side of the plant.

The General Motors-first parking policy -- the first such initiative for one of the company's Canadian plants -- is all about showing pride in what you do as a worker, said Doug Orr, one of the parking policy's prime movers as plant chairman for Local 199 of the Canadian Auto Workers union.

He can't figure out why any employees, anywhere, wouldn't buy their own employers' products first, and display them proudly. "I think you should support what you're doing."

The St. Catharines initiative is the latest display of what might be called plant-floor chauvinism -- the urge to marshal employees' pride and marketing potential behind the company's own products. Such movements become particularly evident during periods when domestic-made products of all kinds come under heavy pressure from imports.

GM Canada spokeswoman Pam McLaughlin said this is not company policy but a number of General Motors plants in the United States already have such parking prejudices.

GM does not try to push workers into switching to its own products, she said, aside from offering a generous employee discount.

In Canada, DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc. has a long-standing requirement that only Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler products be allowed to park in lots within the gates of the production plants, a company spokeswoman said.

But this becomes academic at the large Windsor, Ont., plant because all hourly workers' spots are outside the gates, she said.

Mr. Orr said the new initiative comes straight from the St. Catharines component plant's shop floor, arising from members' concerns that some junior managers being hired by the company drive alien autos instead of Chevrolets or Pontiacs. As a result, he said, the company mandated a month ago that salaried staff with non-GM cars should park in the smaller lot, or see them towed.

But, Mr. Orr said, some offending autos were still spotted in the main lot, which takes about 1,000 cars and sits along one of the city's busy thoroughfares. The policy was thus extended to the 1,500 hourly workers, although Mr. Orr estimates that only 30 to 40 cars will probably have to find new homes in the relative Siberia of the side lot.

Mr. Orr said the new policy is broadly supported, although he said there have been some whispers of opposition among the small minority driving non-GM cars.

"They're paying me for my time," employee Murielle Boucher, who drives a DaimlerChrysler sedan, told a local newspaper. "I don't think I signed a contract when I got hired that I needed absolutely to drive a GM."

Mr. Orr's riposte is: "We don't tell them what to buy -- you can just park in the other lot."

But he said General Motors pays workers a good wage, as well as sending pension cheques to thousands of retirees in the community, including his own father and father-in-law. "I just see it as common sense that we are driving a perception that we support the products we build."

The policy is not iron-clad, however. GM Canada's Ms. McLaughlin assured that visitors driving non-GM autos don't have to worry about being towed.