After months of negotiations, the General Motors plant in Oshawa will stay open.
Unifor’s National President, Jerry Dias and President and Managing Director of General Motors, Travis Hester announced this morning that there will be $170 million invested to transition the plant from manufacturing to stamping. This transformation will save 300 of the 2,600 union jobs at the plant, with the potential to grow and attract more jobs as the facility attracts new customers.
The Oshawa site will still end vehicle production at the end of 2019, but 55 acres of the plant will become a test track for autonomous and advanced vehicle.
Dias knows that cars do not fall out of the sky, so this deal will keep the plant from shutting down in December.
“Am I happy? No. But instead of us facing a hard closure in December of this year we have an understanding between Unifor and GM Canada for a long term commitment and that is better than what we had last November,” said Jerry Dias. “I am not leaving here celebrating today, but I am leaving here knowing we made the best out of a bad situation.”
Hester also said that they will invest millions to train people at their job action centre, as 41 companies have come forward with over 500 jobs that need to be filled.
