GM Canada has announced it will resume production at its St. Catharines Propulsion plant in Ontario on May 11th.
About 300 employees will return to work at the St. Catharines plant next week, all of which have volunteered to do so. The St. Catharines plant is responsible for manufacturing General Motors’ 3.6L LFX V6 engine, which is found in the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks and Buick Enclave and GMC Terrain crossovers.
The St. Catharines plant also manufactures heads for the automaker’s 5.3L EcoTec3 V8 engine and various 6.2L V8 engines, however stamping work at the plant will not resume until later in the month. The majority of GM’s North America assembly plants will come back online on May 18th, the automaker said Wednesday.
“Based on conversations and collaboration with unions and government officials, GM is targeting to restart the majority of manufacturing operations the week of May 18 in the U.S. and Canada under extensive safety measures,” GM Canada said in a prepared statement. “These procedures meet or exceed the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada guidelines and are designed to keep people safe when they arrive, while they and as they leave the facility.”
CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario
The CAMI plant in Ingersoll, which builds the Chevrolet Equinox crossover, may come back online even later on in May, however. Jerry Dias, president of Canadian labor union Unifor, said employees at CAMI may not return to work until the week of May 25th and said he’s “not rushing into any sort of decision,” as to when to restart the production line there.
“We’ve got to make sure that our members are comfortable,” Dias added.
There has been some activity at GM Canada’s Oshawa Assembly plant in recent weeks as Unifor employees prepare the site for face mask production. The company received a shipment of face mask manufacturing equipment at Oshawa Assembly in late April and plans to begin producing masks at the site shortly.
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Source: Automotive News
Comments
Hey GM why let a top notch plant and work force sit idle at a $.70 cent to USD and Medicare with a virtually new paint shop in this manufacturing facility of 8 million sq ft ,and just limited usage to build stampings and face masks which we greatly appreciate the million per month output to help our health care workers in the Covid-19 pandemic .We are ready and willing to pitch in and come up with a viable plan to bring assembly operation back to the Canadian home town of GM of Canada !
We are a first class operation 34 top a ward winners low Canadian $. Tier 2 wages
I believe the 3.6L lfx engine is found in the GMC Acadia, not the Terrain as mentioned.