GM Oshawa Assembly signHandout / GM Canada General Motors will invest $170 million converting the Oshawa, Ontario assembly plant it’d intended to close into a parts production facility and autonomous vehicle test track. GM and labour union Unifor announced May 8 their new agreed-upon plans for the plant. The 60-plus-year-old facility will be transitioned into an parts producer for GM and other auto industry clients; the vehicle assembly stations will go away, and be replaced by machines for stamping aftermarket parts. The facility will also act as hub for autonomous vehicle (AV) testing, and its redevelopment will see the construction of an AV test track. GM says 300 jobs will be retained with the potential to grow and generate significant additional jobs in the coming years. Unfortunately most of the roughly 2,600 hourly workers currently employed in Oshawa assembly will still lose their jobs, though there will be opportunities to move to other GM plants in Ontario. Packages will also be offered to employees who are close to retirement. A Job Action Centre will be established in June to help people find jobs outside of GM once the plant closes in December 2019; the centre is jointly supported by GM, Unifor and the Ontario government. GM is also offering financial support for employees looking to retrain for new jobs. “This transformation plan is very significant as it positions Oshawa for a sustainable future, GM Canada president and managing director Travis Hester said. 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.” That new test track will be used specifically to test autonomous vehicle technology, as well as to expand GM’s technical centre capabilities in Ontario. After ongoing protests and even Super Bowl ads fighting the plant’s closure, it seems like Jerry Dias, Unifor National President, is satisfied with this new resolution. “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, Dias said. We are in a much better position than we were five months ago when the plant was
Origin: GM will convert Oshawa plant into autonomous vehicle test track