The incoming sixth-generation 2016 Camaro has captivated Chevrolet fans around the world, but many Canadians with close ties to the auto sector aren’t exactly happy to see the new vehicle hit the road.
The last fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro will roll off the assembly line in Oshawa, Ontario in just four months and assembly workers at GM’s Oshawa Assembly plant are growing increasingly anxious as to what lies ahead for them.
Back in April, GM Canada officially announced it would axe 1,000 jobs from the Camaro production facility on November 20, the very last time a Zeta-based Camaro will be assembled.
A few days prior, the company announced it would add 100 new positions to its Oshawa engineering centre, located beside the Oshawa plant, in an effort to boost connected vehicle development. Unsurprisingly, the announced job cuts stole headlines and incensed many who thought the job additions were too little, too late.
“It doesn’t just affect General Motors, it affects the entire community,” Chris Black, a worker at the Oshawa plant, told CTV News. “For every job inside, it affects seven jobs outside.”
Since the company announced the fifth-gen vehicle would be produced in Oshawa back in 2006, approximately 130,000 vehicles have rolled off the line each year. In fact, more than half a million “new Camaros” have since rolled out of the factory, making it the best selling Camaro in history.
The production announcement saved 2,700 jobs, according to the news outlet, but now Ontario’s once-prosperous auto sector will be dealt another blow once 2016 Chevrolet Camaro production shifts to GM’s Lansing Grand River assembly plant in Michigan, just south of the border.
But it’s easy to understand why workers are worried about their future. A decade ago the plant had 11,000 workers. Next year, that number will shrink to 2,500, according to the news outlet.
Despite the cuts, GM says it remains committed to Canada, and will continue to produce five other vehicles at the factory: the Chevrolet Impala, Buick Regal, Cadillac XTS, the Chevrolet fleet Impala and Chevrolet Equinox.
But Canada isn’t holding its breath. Earlier this month the federal and provincial governments hired auto czar Ray Tanguay, recently retired chairman of Toyota Motor manufacturing Canada, as a special advisor to help protect and maintain the country’s auto sector.
Comments
I’m not saying they will do it, but I could see GM slowly moving away from manufacturing in Canada. The XTS will only be on the market for a couple more year with no replacement. The Implala limited also only has a couple years left. Buick could easily import a Buick badged Insignia from Europe in its next generation. And the Equinox could very well move back to the U.S. to be built with its platform mates. That only leaves the Impala which could too move in its next generation to be built among its platform mates.
There is some short term good news. GM Canada announced that enough people have taken early retirement packages that layoff’s will be avoided. The Oshawa facility has a lot of high seniority employee’s.
http://media.gm.ca/media/ca/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/ca/en/2015/Jun/0609_SteveCarlisleCommunityUpdate.html
Next generation Equinox was announced to continue in Ingersoll. Though not sure if Oshawa will remain as overflow.
With the Canadian dollar sitting low and projected to go even lower vs. the US dollar manufacturing in Canada has become cheap again. Oshawa is too nice of a facility with one of the highest quality and productivities around. Cadillac is going to be getting some new models in the next couple of years. I see Oshawa getting a piece of that. However the outcome will be all pending the union negotiations next year.
What they get will depend on their unions willingness to compete with other GM Plants.
GM has more plants than they need so they are shopping new models around and with the way cars are built today production can be moved easily.
The other GM plants like Lordstown and Wentzville have learned and have had solid dependable work given to their plants. The CAW needs to learn from these locals. They are no longer in a place of power and need to come to the table and work out a reasonable deal.
The product is always going to get made wherever it’s the cheapest to do so. It won’t be the first time plant workers got weary and won’t be the last.
I have been saying for a year, (half facetiously) that workers should be learning Spanish. It’s clear that this plant won’t remain open for much longer, and that some of this production will be re-located to Mexico. Some of the comments above mention numbers of employees dropping from 11,000 to 2500. The hand writing is on the wall. (Heck, they sold 62 XTS’s in Canada in June). Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that job security is a high priority at this plant. Writers are right, corporations will go where the labor is cheaper. I’m afraid the union will have priced themselves out of a job soon. A shame really.
We saw the same thing here with the tire industry. The Unions would not work with the companies and we lost all but experimental and racing tire production.
Some went overseas a lot went south and some went to Canada.
You don’t have to learn Spanish you just have to get your unions to accept the responsibility for not saving the jobs as there is now many markets willing to do it cheaper.
We lost the jobs over the fact the companies wanted the union to work 8 hour days for 8 hours pay. In the depression here they cut the shifts to 6 hours to add a 4th shift at 8 hours pay to employee more people. It never changed and in the 1970’s the tire makers asked for the two hours back.
Now keep in mind this was when a tire builder could afford to own an Airplane.
Gm has done this to countless cities in the past the company will build up an entire area and then rip the heart out of it and watch it crumble. Fuck GM
Sorry this is not socialism. Companies are in business to make money and be competitive. No longer are companies regional and you have to learn to be competitive with everyone else.
GM is not ripping anyone’s heart out. They offer competitive wages with other plants that they can use and you compete for the work. Most GM plants that work a deal do very well and unions that do not make competitive deals lose out.
No one is promised a job at birth and no longer can you just sit back and expect to keep collecting money at a higher rate than others. Today many old union locals need to learn how to compete again.
The Ball is in the CAW court. If they can be competitive they will get the work and if not they won’t. It is really that simple.
Oh, and don’t say it is all going to Mexico. Much of the work has gone to Michigan where the UAW learned a harsh lesson by not being competitive. Today they are being competitive and getting good jobs and solid investment in plants because they are willing to work with GM. If GM does well they do well. This is more of a team effort than it has been for a long time. The key now is not to get greedy on either side and continue to work together.
The President of GM of Canada has gone on record publicly saying that no new product announcements would be made until after the next CAW contract was settled — i.e., they need to be competitive with the US — not at an $0.80 dollar, but probably at a $0.95 cent dollar. Thus it’s the union’s move.
It’s actually pretty simple. Once this year’s UAW contract is settled, re-open the Canadian contract, make sure that you are competitive ….and sign an extended agreement. The wage issue will be contentious — when Oshawa was producing trucks that were needed and the C$ was low, the CAW got wage boosts so that the starting wages are well in excess of US Tier 1 employees. There might be some giveback on that but maybe the union can just change the retirement plan — no more 30 and out — to the same kind of plan that salary workers have. Their would be savings to GM of Canada — and the union can save face by saying that they have the same plan as the salaried folks.
Whatever approach that they decide, do it quickly.
Yes, the evil unions once again ruining everything for the the lais-sez faire elites.
This is happening everywhere, don’t make it about the new Camaro, the new Camaro isn’t why my IT shop is getting a new Vendor system which will cut jobs for everyone supporting the current system.
In todays world you cannot expect to have one job for any given length of time. Time and technology changes and companies are cutting costs all the time, it’s called lean and they are doing it everywhere. Just wait till they outsource your jobs to India, they would if they could.
The next step which is already underway is to move the plants from the US to Mexico and China. Time to implement tariffs like they do in India and China.
The plants in China will not be used for here. Mexico has been in play for a long time and only on select models.
Most of Canadian production has gone to Michigan and Tennessee.
They wined and cryed that they wouldn’t make it without a bail out, well thanks a lot GM for the payback.