Late last month, General Motors CEO Mary Barra was invited to stand before Canada’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to “explain GM’s future and continued commitment to the Canadian automotive and manufacturing industry.”
Now it has been revealed that Barra will not appear before the committee, however other GM executives will.
In a statement made to Reuters, a GM spokesperson said Barra’s “complex schedule wouldn’t allow her to be there in a reasonable period of time.” GM Canada’s president, Travis Hester, along with the automaker’s vice president of North American manufacturing, Gerald Johnson, are expected to appear before the panel instead.
Barra was asked to appear before the committee by social democratic NDP party member and the committee’s auto industry critic Brian Masse. GM has faced intense backlash in Canada after deciding to close down the Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario this year and lay off more than 5,000 workers.
Cadillac XTS production at Oshawa Assembly
In an official statement sent out following Barra’s invitation, Masse was critical of GM Canada for taking a government bailout during the 2009 economic collapse and then cutting its workforce by a third.
“The last time that GM was in trouble was during the 2009 fiscal meltdown with the Canadian federal government providing a bailout which totalled $10.8 billion in loans, share purchases and subsidies,” he said. “The net loss on the package is between $4 billion to $5 billion, including a $1 billion loan write-off.”
GM said previously that it has repaid the bailout money “more than 10 times over since 2009,” by “reinvesting over $100 billion in Canadian manufacturing, purchased goods, $8 billion into GM Canada pensions that support Unifor members,” and creating Canada’s “largest auto software engineering workforce.”
Hester and Johnson are expected to appear before the industry committee sometime in March, Reuters reports.
GM says it remains committed to Canada and still operates a plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, along with a headquarters office in Oshawa and a tech center in Markham.
(source: Reuters)
Comments
After the plant shut down, what will the number of employees be for GM Canada?
She is scared.
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If GM doesn’t think it can lay off 5000 workers at the Oshawa plant and move building vehicles to Mexico, the I and many other Canadians have bought our last GM products! Honda, Toyota and Ford still build in Canada so they will benefit from our buying power. GM can sell its vehicles to Mexico!
On this forum on another article of the Oshawa plant, a Canadian truck driver stated that he drives auto parts from a Canadian manufacture all the way to a GM plant in Mexico. The picture of the assembly line, the robot crane reads SIEMENS. That is who I worked for and I was laid off 28 days before my 25th employee anniversary. Everyone has too realize that it is not the end of the world when you get laid off. Too many go over the edge. I don’t know what the post benefits will be but I’m sure between the union, GM and the a Canadian government that there are ready training benefits and some assistance after the end date. The laid off workers must take advantage of these programs to get through what could be a difficult time.
For me with unemployment payment at the state level, a little help from Obama, and my severance package I made it through nine months before getting a job and that was in 2009 and I was 59. I took a training course paid by the State of Florida and received resume and job interview skill training.
By boycotting a company may just just cause GM to pull more resources away and lay off more people. My very first job out of college I worked with a person with no college degree and he said one thing I still remember as it it was yesterday. When a technician gets hired he starts at $7,500 a year, an engineer starts at $15,000 a year (1971). Lesson learned is you always must improve yourself through trying, education and college work.
You’re actually describing why there shouldn’t have been a bailout in the first place. Yes, people find a way to make it work. And car makers that can actually compete in the market place without suckling on the government teet would have hired all those workers from the defunct company known as GM , and pumped money into the economy at a no lesser rate.
Maybe it’ll happen now in Canada, 10 years late. Survival of the fittest. There will be no harm if Canadians switch to Honda, Toyota, Ford.
“complex schedule wouldn’t allow her to be there in a reasonable period of time.”
Hmm…… Machete Mary has enough time to go to charity balls, PR tours at various plants bearing token investments, and stepping in front of every camera that she can. yet she has no time to explain her “difficult” decisions to the Canadian government? Nothing like throwing her underlings under the bus to try and explain her stupid and shortsighted decisions.
Mary Barra will shut down GM.
Look this is part of making the tough decisions Mary. You do this stuff you have to stand up and face the music or you look like a coward.
I’m Canadian and still happy to buy a HD truck built in Flint. My 6.0 trucks have been nothing but low maintenance with minimal downtime. GM is no more or less perfect than any other manufacturer but I can’t make emotional decisions. I want them to find new Canadian jobs but I’m not going to stop buying a product that’s been good to me. The solution isn’t always as simple as ‘just buy something else’ but I certainly understand the sentiment and have empathy for those laid off. I work in the oil patch, I understand winning and losing jobs especially right now.