Some politicians and community representatives in the Oshawa-Durham region were pleased with this week’s announcement that General Motors will convert the Oshawa Assembly plant into a parts production facility, but others believe the 300 retained positions aren’t enough to have an effect on the community at large.
Oshawa Assembly in 2018
Speaking to DurhamRegion.com, Oshawa Progressive Conservative MP Colin Carrie described the new agreement as “far from ideal,” as there are still more than 2,000 local residents who will be left unemployed.
“I remain deeply concerned for the other 90 per cent of our plant’s hourly — and salaried — workers who, along with their families, still face a very uncertain future,” he said in prepared statement. “A significant number of current hourly and salaried workers lack the years of service required to be eligible to retire with dignity when vehicle assembly operations cease in the coming months. For the sake of these hourly and salaried employees, we hope that GM Canada will continue to work with stakeholders to return production or related manufacturing mandates to Oshawa.”
Oshawa Assembly workers who spoke to DurhamRegion.com said the 300 positions that have been saved will be offered exclusively to those with high seniority.
“(The new agreement) won’t do much,” said one anonymous worker. “It’s going to help 300 people with 30 years or more, 15 years isn’t going to cut it. It’s not good.”
“It sucks really,” added another. “I have family that work here, it’s a struggle. To be swept under the rug with only 300 jobs, it sucks.”
Artists’ rendition of the AV test track.
In addition to converting Oshawa into a parts and stamping facility, GM also announced this week that it would be constructing a new autonomous vehicle test track on property of Oshawa Assembly. The track is seen as an expansion of GM’s growing technology presence in Ontario, where it already operates a large tech campus.
In a statement, GM Canada boss Travis Hester said the test track “positions Oshawa for a sustainable future.”
“This agreement maximizes the support for our people and their families, and further secures Oshawa as a key in developing vehicles of the future at our new test track,” he added.
Source: DurhamRegion.com
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Comments
Well I have seen this happen before workers with high sonority who could and should retire wont, not just because they are greedy they have no life and their wife’s do not want them home! I have seen this happen at Chrysler assembly in Windsor Ontario, some of them end up divorced! A few years ago when a person had to retire at age 65 some of those sad SOB’s came back to the plant the next day and tried to resume work, SAD.
No one talks about the main reason why high seniority workers have reason to be reluctant to retire. Pensions lost protection against inflation a decade ago and the benefits retirees get are worth 20% less than the benefits enjoyed by active employees. Retirees consequently face steadily declining real incomes and are increasingly getting other jobs to try to stay above water. Unifor has done nothing to alleviate their situation to date and this must change.
Not great but remember the word a while back was the plant was totally getting the wrecking ball, now it will become a stamping plant/test track with an idoles assembly line . Will it come back online soon?, we’ll see.