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HomeNewsGM to invest $170 million to support transition at Oshawa Assembly Plant

GM to invest $170 million to support transition at Oshawa Assembly Plant

KAWARTHA LAKES-General Motors Canada and Unifor today announced that they have reached a “Transformation Agreement” that will transition the GM Oshawa Assembly operations to parts manufacturing and advanced vehicle testing. The Agreement includes the following:

  • The Company plans to invest in excess of C$170 million to support a transition of operations at the Plant from vehicle assembly to one focused on stamping, related sub-assembly, and other miscellaneous activities for GM and other auto industry customers.
  • GM will convert part of the Oshawa Plant property into a test track for autonomous and advanced technology vehicles – further expanding the capability of GM’s Canadian Technical Centre (CTC) in Ontario.
  • The new business will retain 300 Oshawa jobs with the potential to grow and generate significant additional jobs in the coming years, as the business attracts new customers.
  • GM Canada will offer special relocations to Oshawa employees for jobs at some of its other Ontario operations.
  • GM will offer enhanced retirement packages to retirement-eligible Oshawa Assembly employees including vouchers toward the purchase of new GM vehicles, a benefit that will support both retiring employees and GM dealerships in Durham Region and surrounding areas.
  • A transition plan for other GM Oshawa Assembly employees. A “Jobs Action Centre” will be opened in June 2019, in Oshawa to enable employees to plan now for future career opportunities outside GM following the end of Oshawa vehicle production in December 2019. Supported by GM, Unifor and the Ontario government, the Jobs Action Centre will help match employee skills with new employers’ requirements.
  • GM will offer retraining financial support for all qualified Oshawa Assembly hourly employees seeking new employment.

A number of people from the City of Kawartha Lakes work at the Oshawa plant.

GM says it also intends to donate the three-acre Fenelon Park and the 87-acre McLaughlin Bay wildlife preserve to the City of Oshawa.

GM Canada president and managing director Travis Hester said, “This transformation plan is very significant as it positions Oshawa for a sustainable future. This agreement maximizes the support for our people and their families, and further secures Oshawa as a key in developing vehicles of the future at our new test track.”

“By maintaining a footprint in Oshawa, and keeping the plant intact, we save hundreds of jobs and this gives us the ability to build and create new jobs in the future. We are in a much better position than we were five months ago when the plant was closing,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

The Oshawa Assembly Plant is slated for closure at the end of 2019.

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Pamela Vanmeer
Pamela Vanmeerhttps://www.kawartha411.ca/
Pamela VanMeer is a two time winner of the prestigious Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Award. Her investigative reports on abuse in Long Term Care Homes garnered international attention for the issue and won the Ron Laidlaw Award. She is a former reporter and anchor at CHEX News, now Global Peterborough and helped launch the New CHEX Daily, a daily half hour talk show. While at CHCH News in Hamilton she covered some of the biggest news stories of the day.

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