Finally, after almost two years, pickup truck production has resumed at GM's Oshawa, Ontario plant. As you may recall, the auto giant shut down operations at the plant in December 2019 with a plan to transforming it to produce components for other GM facilities. Negotiations with the workers’ union at the plant led to GM announcing a year ago it was modernizing the plant and would resume vehicle production at the plant. The work included the addition of a new body shop where the Chevrolet Silverado will be assembled.
Scott Bell, president of General Motors Canada, said the upgrade process, which took just over 12 months, was one of the fastest in the company's history. In fact, the company took one year less than its normal work schedule when it comes to preparing for a new vehicle launch.
“The rapid retooling, hiring and training needed to reach today’s start of production was an extraordinary accomplishment,” he said via a statement.
The start of truck assembly this week also came faster than anticipated. It was originally thought that production would start in January 2022. This is what GM had announced in November 2020 when the news of the 1.3 billion investment was announced.
Jerry Dias, president of the Unifor workers' union, said the return of vehicle production to Oshawa is unprecedented.
“It is an achievement owed to the resiliency and dedication of Unifor members. Seeing the first of many trucks roll off the newly re-opened Oshawa assembly line was a proud moment for everyone who fought shoulder to shoulder for these jobs.”
- Jerry Dias, president of the Unifor union
Dias, along with other union leaders, worked hard to bring production back to Oshawa in the final months of 2019 and in early 2020, even as workers at the plant put the finishing touches on the last GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck just days before Christmas 2019.
Two years ago, 2,300 employees were put out of work by GM’s closing of the plant, with about 300 people were kept on site for various operations. Needless to say, this week’s restart is great news for Oshawa and its workers.
The Oshawa plant will operate on two shifts, creating 1,800 jobs in the process. The first freshly built cars will hit dealerships next month.
