{"id":213433,"date":"2019-05-09T03:33:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=213433"},"modified":"2019-05-09T03:33:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:33:50","slug":"gm-unifor-announce-investment-in-oshawa-plant-that-will-save-300-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/09\/gm-unifor-announce-investment-in-oshawa-plant-that-will-save-300-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"GM, Unifor announce investment in Oshawa plant that will save 300 jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FUniforCanada%2Fvideos%2F453941242031422%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>TORONTO &#8212; The union representing Canadian auto workers claimed a partial victory Tuesday after General Motors Canada announced an Oshawa, Ont., plant slated to close later this year will be converted to a part-stamping and autonomous vehicle testing facility.<\/p>\n<p>Unifor and GM Canada said the transition will cost $170 million and save 300 of the 2,600 union jobs at the plant, with the potential to attract more jobs as the facility attracts new customers.<\/p>\n<p>GM Canada president Travis Hester, who announced the so-called \u201cTransformation Agreement\u201d alongside Unifor national president Jerry Dias, said the Oshawa site will still end vehicle production at the end of 2019.<\/p>\n<p>However, 22 hectares of the facility will be converted into a test track for autonomous and other advanced vehicles, which Hester said will help expand the nearby Canadian Technical Centre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to send a strong and positive message from GM to the people of Oshawa,\u201d he said. \u201cWith our Canadian headquarters, our sales and marketing organization, the OnStar support centre, the Oshawa engineering centre, and the new announcements just mentioned here, GM plans to be one of Oshawa&#8217;s leading companies and employers for many decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dias, whose union suspended a media campaign against GM in March amid what it called productive talks with the automaker, called the agreement \u201cinnovative\u201d but admitted it was far from a perfect solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I do know is you play the cards you&#8217;re dealt and you make the best out of a bad situation,\u201d he said. \u201cI will suggest that instead of us facing a hard closure in December of this year &#8230; we have an understanding between the parties of a long-term commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dias said the agreement will help keep the company in Oshawa over the next decade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis announcement, though it may not have a lot of jobs as we sit here today in May, there&#8217;s going to be a heck of a lot more in December,\u201d he said. \u201cThere&#8217;ll be more next year. There&#8217;ll be more the year after as we continue to attract work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A joint statement from GM Canada and Unifor said the company will offer relocations to other facilities in Ontario for those affected, as well as \u201cenhanced retirement packages\u201d to 1,300 eligible employees.<\/p>\n<p>Industry observers said the automaker&#8217;s decision to repurpose the Oshawa plant could mark a turning point for the auto sector in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGM has a real strong R&amp;D centre in Oshawa and another one in Markham working on autonomous and electric vehicle issues,\u201d said auto industry analyst Dennis Desrosiers. \u201cPutting a test track in gives those jobs more security &#8230; but also potentially a real possibility of more jobs on the intellectual side of the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Federal Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said the government is encouraged by the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust yesterday, Oshawa&#8217;s autoworkers were facing a completely uncertain future,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cToday, GM has committed to providing work for hundreds of them at the plant and to supporting the others, and we want to see it through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ontario Economic Development Minister Todd Smith said in a statement that the province welcomes the agreement, calling it good news for the City of Oshawa and the surrounding region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are glad this historic site will continue to be a hub for vehicle parts manufacturing, technological innovation and regional economic growth,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>However, he acknowledged that many workers still face an \u201cuncertain future,\u201d saying the government is working with Unifor and GM to support affected employees and their families.<\/p>\n<p>Christo Aivalis, a labour relations expert at the University of Toronto, said the deal is a victory for the union, which launched a months-long public relations campaign against GM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Unifor was able to tap into a sense that these are good jobs for Canadian workers and GM has, for a long time, had a lot of loyalty from Canadian consumers,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe (GM) saw real pressure from Unifor and that trickled down into the general public and they felt that there was real risk that a total closure would cause real brand damage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO &#8212; The union representing Canadian auto workers claimed a partial victory Tuesday after General Motors Canada announced an Oshawa, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":213434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-adam-burns","mauthors-shawn-jeffords","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213436,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213433\/revisions\/213436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}