The century-old General Motors manufacturing complex outside Toronto is scheduled to resume building vehicles in January 2022 under the terms of a new labor agreement with Unifor, the union representing more than 1,700 blue-collar workers employed by GM.
Unifor President Jerry Dias says the tentative pact reverses GM’s November 2018 announcement that it was ending vehicle production in Oshawa, ON, which has been the base of the automaker’s operations in Canada since World War I. Production at the Oshawa plant ended in 2019, according to GM.
“We have a lot of reason to celebrate today,” says Dias, who notes GM will spend close to $1 billion to refurbish the Oshawa plant before production resumes.
The tentative settlement ends a two-year standoff between Unifor and GM over Oshawa’s fate. Workers had staged brief sit-down strikes inside the complex after the shutdown announcement.
GM plans to begin renovating the Oshawa plant almost immediately. The project will include a new body shop and a new assembly line for the light- and heavy-duty pickup trucks GM plans to build in Oshawa in the future, Dias says.
The first heavy-duty pickups are to roll off the new assembly line in January 2022, with a second shift to be added in March 2022. Dias says he is hopeful GM will add a third shift at the refurbished plant in the summer of 2022.
“We will once again be building (Chevrolet) Silverado and (GMC) Sierra,” says Dias, noting Oshawa will be the only GM plant building both light- and heavy-duty pickup trucks.
The reopening of the assembly line at Oshawa will add 2,000 workers on two shifts to GM’s payroll. A third shift would add another 500 jobs, Dias says.
GM currently employs about 400 workers in Oshawa building aftermarket parts under a 2019 agreement with Unifor; another 175 union workers are on indefinite layoff, he notes, since many workers took special retirement and severance packages Unifor negotiated after GM announced it was shuttering the Oshawa plant.
GM will begin recalling employees during the summer of 2021, says Dias (pictured, left), adding the automaker’s investment will create hundreds of new job opportunities in Oshawa both at GM and at companies supplying the automaker.
“We went into negotiations…aware we needed to solidify the footprint for the auto industry in Canada,” Dias says, noting the union reached earlier agreements with Fiat Chrysler and Ford that are bringing new investment to plants in Ontario.
“We saved the best for last. We launched one major campaign to get GM to reverse their decision,” Dias says, adding he expects Ontario’s provincial and Canada’s federal government to provide incentives for refurbishing the Oshawa plant.
GM also agreed to make a significant investment in engine and transmission production by putting new work into the plant, including engines for the Chevrolet Equinox and transmissions for the Chevrolet Corvette, Dias says. “They need the volume.”
GM declined comment on the tentative agreement, pending ratification. A ratification vote by Unifor members is set for Sunday, Dias says.
GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra, discussing the automaker’s third-quarter earnings, notes the popularity of GM’s truck lineup is helping the company “self-finance” its ambitious and expensive plans to develop electric vehicles.
GM also notes in its quarterly earnings statement that despite tight inventory, GM’s large pickup trucks sold well, especially the heavy-duty pickups that will be built in Oshawa.
Through the third quarter, GM’s large pickups gained 1.7 percentage points in retail market share, leading the segment with 37.5% share, the automaker says.
