Jan. 7 is the date GM Canada workers will either celebrate or loathe. Next Monday, the automaker will give its final decision on if it plans to proceed and shut down the Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada, or if it will reconsider the action.
The Truth About Cars reported on the all-important date last Monday and it comes after both the automaker and Canadian union, Unifor, have sparred publicly about the plant’s future. Ahead of the Christmas holiday, both sides issued press conferences and releases with strong words.
Unifor President Jerry Dias railed GM and asked the automaker why it continues to invest in Mexico when U.S. and Canadian buyers purchase more GM vehicles. He questioned GM’s traditional respect for the “build where you sell” model, too, and added this time “they truly have gone too far.”
Oshawa currently builds the Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, and the previous-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. The XTS was scheduled to depart ahead of the automaker’s massive restructuring announcement in November, but we learned the Impala will head to the chopping block as well. Its other corporate cousin, the Buick LaCrosse, will also die off.
And previous-generation Silverado and Sierra production was never a permanent solution to Oshawa’s capacity issue. GM stated from the beginning that the Canadian plant would play an important part in transitioning from the K2-gen pickups to the new T1 2019 Silverado and Sierra.
GM fired back on Dias’ assertions and said it hasn’t built a new plant in Mexico, while Dias returned fire and said the automaker has continuously invested in the southern country for new vehicle production. The 2019 Chevrolet Blazer remains a target of both Canada’s Unifor and the United Auto Workers in the U.S. The Blazer was announced for assembly in Mexico the same day GM laid off a second shift at the Lordstown plant in Ohio, now one of two car-assembly plants set to go idle in a few months.
Oshawa’s chance at life is slim, but employees and the union said GM gave a glimmer of hope after meetings. The automaker will tell the union whether it will work on a solution at Oshawa, or if the historic plant will soon be one for the history books.
Comments
A roughly a million vehicle-a-year operation that can be used in NA, return to Europe and boost Holden in the SE hemisphere with product. Ball in your court GM…
GM jis slated to leave canada and the US is next! they are now the largest auto maker in mexico!Canadians and Americans unlike the rest of the world dont buy home country autos in great numbers anymore .GM is bigger in china than the US Imagine if the second world war started today The US would not have companies left to change to war production.The outcome would be very different now,.NO LOYALITY to the US any more. Thanks GM
Oshawa burned their bridges with a disruptive union over the years.
Let face it they were told a while ago these cars were gone in 2019 with no indication of other products that could have been there. The fact is Lordstown got caught with a car that suddenly declined but Oshawa was given a car with an experation factor.
The day the Camaro left was when Oshawa’s fate was sealed.
Watch as a Lordstown will be back just as a Springhill came back and now exports product.
Depending on the economics and timing of a product is how it goes to where it is built.
GM has a number of open plants here and new work will go to them that can be profitable and unions that are cooperative.
Loyalty is a nice sentiment but at the end of the day building cars with little return does no one any good.
Sometimes you have to loose the hand to save a life.
Oshawa went gangrene.
The Canadian government wants their 10.8 Billion back. Time to seize all GM assets in Canada and nationalize them.
To all Canadians. We are in an economic war with the US. Do not buy any US made products.
“Time to seize all GM assets in Canada and nationalize them.”
Really now? That’s not going to solve anything, especially when GM still holds the IP. International trade law would side with GM, and Ottawa would have to make their own vehicles.
“To all Canadians.”
Ohh……this better be a good one!
“We are in an economic war with the US. Do not buy any US made products.”
Well that’s a new one. It’s not that you can or cannot do so, but really, you’re going to have to pick and choose what makes a US made product a US made product. If this all comes down to origin of manufacturing but not origin of design and engineering, then you’ve exposed some holes in your boycott. If you’re going to include design and engineering, you’re effectively asking the entire county then you’re going to have a much harder challenge, as physical manufacturing is not the sole domain of the US (or Canada for that matter). There’s more to a economy than just physical manufacturing.
Secondly, while we are fortunate to finally have greater access to markets to sell and buy from other than the US (chiefly the EU and China), it’s not as simple to flick a switch a shut the US all together. We’re not only too-intertwined with the US to cut them off cold turkey, but so are thousands and thousands of business that do do business in the US. For them, a cold turkey cut is not possible.
Besides, if you want to (somehow) make the US suffer in an economic war, play it long-term and bleed them over time. An overnight boycott of all US manufactured products is good enough to make a click-bait headline, but it won’t last the week before the group of people splinter and fall apart. It happens to every single-issue political group, both left and right.
From one canuck to another, it’s far better to be a rational canuck than a mindlessly proud one.
Sure it’s a progressive process but we now have the TPP in effect effective January 1 which the US isn’t part of. Canadian businesses have the incredible opportunity to start diversifying their business and many products will go down in prices.
The process has already been implemented in my household. There are always alternatives and many more will come. I have already convinced over 10 people not to buy a US made car and they love the alternatives. It’s all about education.
I suspect Dias will regret taking the position that Unifor will “waste” GM in Canada. Seriously, what leverage does Dias have at this point? If he goes too far, GM will close down CAMI too.
What’s your solution? Do you want to cower down in humiliation? Run like a yellow belly? A cuckold?
We need to hit hard and low. Go Canucks!
That’s it! I am giving up all Canadian Maple Suryup, Hortons and Eugene Levy movies. Now that Super Dave Osborne and John Candy are dead they have nothing we want. Lol!
Anyone seen the movie Canadian Bacon?
Super Dave was American. He got more air time with Bizarre and when CanWest Global kept his series going afterwards, but that’s about it.