General Motors Canada has confirmed its Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario will cease production of the Chevrolet Impala on December 17th – though a part of the facility will remain open for parts stamping and other operations.
Speaking to Automotive News Canada, GM confirmed production at Oshawa Assembly would stop the week of December 16, but said it could not confirm an exact date. However Unifor, the labor union that represents hourly workers at the plant, told the publication that it had been informed the line would stop on December 17th. The union is expecting to release an official statement on the matter shortly.
Cadillac XTS at Oshawa Assembly
GM has agreed to leave part of the plant open to stamp body parts, which will keep about 300 people employed. The automaker is also in the process of building a new $170 million autonomous vehicle test track at the plant, which will be used for testing GM’s emerging autonomous vehicle technology.
Oshawa Assembly was one of the plants that was put on the chopping block as part of GM’s corporate restructuring effort, which it first disclosed the details of last November. In addition to the Impala, the plant formerly built the Cadillac XTS, which ended production in early October. It also completes the final assembly of the previous-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, which are being sold alongside the new T1 generation trucks and positioned as a budget alternative.
Unifor workers protest decision to close Oshawa Assembly
Oshawa Assembly employed approximately 2,500 manufacturing workers when at full capacity. GM Canada was also Oshawa’s largest single employers as of May 2017, with the automaker’s corporate headquarters also located in the southern Ontario town.
The closure of Oshawa Assembly is expected to lead to further job losses in the region at parts suppliers and other businesses, with Ontario Federation of Labour head Chris Buckley previously saying that “for every job at the (Oshawa) assembly plant, an additional nine jobs are created in the community.”
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Source: Automotive News Canada
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