GM CAMI Ingersoll Plant To Run On Two Shifts Starting In 2021

The GM CAMI Ingersoll plant in southern Ontario will run on two shifts instead of three starting in 2021.

According to CTV News London, General Motors Canada has decided to eliminate one shift at the facility after a “wave of retirements,” and complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have made it hard to fully staff three shifts. Despite this, the vast majority of workers at CAMI will remain employed, with GM Canada set to offer an option for about 225 workers to stay home in the coming months. More retirements are anticipated in 2021, which will eventually allow the automaker to bring these employees back to work.

“We’ve got really two shifts worth of production and two and four-tenths worth of people, and it’s just not working, so they’re going to consolidate everything into just two shifts and just run,” said Mike Van Boekel, the chairman of the Unifor Local 88 chapter that represents CAMI workers. “We have so many retirements, I wouldn’t surprised if we are hiring by the fourth quarter. But the first half of the year, it will just be a slide down to two shifts.”

Just under 2,000 people currently work at the GM CAMI Ingersoll plant. The plant first opened on April 1st, 1989 and currently builds the Chevy Equinox crossover only. Equinox models destined for consumption in the U.S. and Canada are built at the GM San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico as well.

Unifor recently signed a new contract with GM Canada that includes wage increases and new products for the GM Oshawa Assembly plant just north of Toronto. The GM CAMI Ingersoll plant was unaffected by this contract, however, as it runs on a separate agreement that will not expire until next year.

Subscribe to GM Authority for ongoing GM-related Unifor news, GM union news and ongoing General Motors news coverage.