Back in December, the last vehicle produced at the General Motors Oshawa Assembly plant rolled off the line. The moment marked an end to more than century of vehicle manufacturing in the southern Ontario town following GM’s decision to shutter the plant and put thousands of people out of work. Now, a new documentary called Company Town takes a look at the dark last days of the GM Oshawa Assembly plant and the effect that its closure had on workers and the surrounding community.
Chevy Impala production at Oshawa Assembly
Late in November of 2018, General Motors announced that it would close the Oshawa Assembly plant. In response, Unifor, the union which represented workers there, released a statement that it would not accept GM’s decision. Unifor president Jerry Dias addressed a crowd of concerned workers, saying that “they are not closing our damn plant without one hell of a fight.”
“We have a collective agreement that says they’re not closing any of our facilities,” Dias said, adding, “So we will do anything by any means to make sure they they live up to their word.”
Oshawa Assembly
General Motors took over the Oshawa Assembly plant in 1954, and at its peak, the facility employed upwards of 23,000 people. The facility previously built the Chevy Impala, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Silverado, and GMC Sierra.
In addition to employing workers directly, some of whom were the fourth generation of their family to work there, the plant also indirectly supported thousands of jobs in the adjacent community, with the Toronto Sun reporting that nine additional local jobs were directly connected to each factory job.
Unifor workers protest decision to close Oshawa Assembly.
Despite negotiations, General Motors did end up closing the production line, while retaining around 300 jobs for parts production and metal stamping. The property is also slated for autonomous vehicle testing.
However, for workers and the local community, the plant closure was nothing less than devastating, as seen in this new film.
Check out the Company Town trailer in the video below:
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Comments
All the vehicles shortages I wouldn’t be surprised Oshawa to restart soon after the CV19 Crisis.
I agree with u I wish they would build the Terrain Denali there instead of the Mexico plant !Or any other gm product for that matter !!!
Move the Current Brazilian Tracker or bring back the Terrain to Canada would be a good start to matching Ford Canada’s that will start building new electric SUV’s in 2024 after the Edge Shuts down production .We can build a terrific competitive EV along side the Current Tracker in this quality proven facility with a new EV test track and nearly new paint facility and the Federal sand Provincial governments just gave Ford $ 250 million today ,this was also a strategic over flow build facility of any high selling model in the past when U.S. capacity shortages occurred on high volume models !
Why is it that Oshawa started building Carriages in 1867 and Buicks in 1907 Chevrolet in 1915 but had invested in 1912 Chevrolet stock. This Canadian Industry has only just had over 100 years of USA math?
I agree
best GM plant..our family in the USA had at one time 3 GM cars built from that plant at our home…The chevy Monte carlo, the pontiac grand prix, and a oldsmobile…miss that plant quality vehicles, quality work
My new 2019 Silverado LD with 8 miles on it was built there right at the end 12/2019. When I got it home and started looking closer, the underneath was covered with these white granules SALT! Took me and a friend with the truck on a hoist 3 days to get it off. Guess they took it splashing puddles in the street on the way to the train.
So do u agree with me that the Terrain should be built in Canada 🇨🇦 not Mexico not sure what quality like considering the 2017 Terrain was built in ingersol ontario . I want to purchase a new Terrain Denali hoping quality is good but now I hear 2021 the 2.0 l not available for only in the 2022 model so I guess it will be built in 2021 and been late 2021 but know as 2022 model year !! Any one have a present 2018 -2020 GMC Terrain Denali whats the quality like ?????!
As a Retiree from this plant it hurts to see how a company who made untold amounts of cash on their investments leaves a community after such a long period of time. My family were there at the beginning and the end. We bought GM and spent our our wages on the company and our community. We were loyal supporters. We supported community groups and sent our kids to university. We coached sports teams and were proud of our work. All for a company that was not a team player. just as a handshake can no longer be trusted, it seems that loyalty is no longer rewarded.
It disturbs me by these posts that all are blaming GM. Workers as part of the union got greedy… honestly line workers (full compensation) over 37.00 hr… if they would have accepted 18.00 plus the benefit package in existence GM would have stayed! Have to blame Unifor for idiocy and convincing the populace that they knew best; boy did union refund premiums sell there building to pay back released employees… hell no! What can I say!
Sell it to FCA, they want a third truck plant. The Canadian government should kindly suggest that GM sell it back to the province, and then sell it to a company that’s looking to invest in Canada. Don’t let GM just sit on it using the excuse that they’re saving a tenth of the jobs they once had there.
The facility/land is worth more than that.
I used to work in a UAW plant. The UAW is a parasite that eventually kills off its host.
Those UAW ,CAW , Unifor Workers helped to create the middle class in the U.S. and Canada With good pay and benefits including retirement programmes .The middle class now are slowly disappearing as industrial jobs have flowed to Mexico .south Korea, and communist China ,maybe there was over reach by unions but companies could have stood firm .Now the trend is permanent part time and no retirement programmes of much value .Do you really think Toyota Honda Mercedae or any othe companies building autos to trucks in the U.S.or Canada Your biggest trading partner would offer their current wages and benefits if there wasn’t a UAW or Unifor plant near by ,dream on and I spent 33 years in quality awarded Oshawa Assembly operations plant Management And you can bet the CAW were no pushover in negotiations ,they should get another chance from Mary Barra with a high volume product Like Terrian ,EV ,or Envision they served us well for 100 years In .Canada and the U.S.