Business as usual at St. Catharines GM plant
Union says mood ‘fine’ despite concern for Oshawa peers
It’s business as usual for union members at the St. Catharines GM Propulsion Plant in wake of the announcement the company will stop production in Oshawa at the end of 2019, the head of the local union said..
“Our plant manager and the plant chairperson for General Motors in St. Catharines are saying it is business as usual,” said Greg Brady, president of Unifor Local 199, which represents workers in St. Catharines
“The mood in the plant is fine. We all feel for what our members in Oshawa at Local 222 are going through.
“We are supporting our national leader, Jerry Dias, and we are taking direction from national. We haven’t been affected.”
The Oshawa plant employs 2,600 hourly workers and about 300 salaried personnel. The facility produces the Cadillac XTS and Chevrolet Impala sedans as well as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks, which the company is discontinuing at the end of 2019.
The St. Catharines plant has 1,100 unionized workers employed in three shifts manufacturing V6 and V8 engines and GF6 transmissions. GM ships the products to nine GM assembly plants across North America, the company website said.
“We knew Oshawa didn’t have product after the 2019 model
year,” Brady said. “The UAW agreement is up next year and the future will hinge on getting product down the pike once we have a new collective agreement.”
St. Catharines GM workers went through a similar situation with the closure of their Ontario Street components plant, Brady said.
“The feelings aren’t about anger, and they aren’t about mistrust,” Brady said. “It reminds me a lot of when the news was about the Ontario Street plant. It’s the feeling of the fear of the unknown for the young workers and all the members of 222 in Oshawa.”
The St. Catharines components plant shut down for good in 2010.
The St. Catharines Unifor local has a four-year contract that ends in mid-September 2020, Brady said. It guarantees there will have no plant closure and no loss of product throughout the period of the collective agreement.
The decision to close the Oshawa plant was part of a major global restructuring announced by GM Monday. The company is slashing staff worldwide and closing four facilities in U.S. including the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant and the Lordstown Assembly in Warren, Ohio, and propulsion plants in White Marsh, Md., and Warren, Mich.
The four American plants employ a combined 3,800 hourly and salaried staff. The DetroitHamtramck facility is the only factory GM had left in the city, and the Lordstown plant in Ohio was one of its biggest.
The V8 engines produced in St. Catharines are shipped to plants in Arlington, Ont.; Lansing Grand River, Mich., and OEM Aftermarket Marine and end up in Sierras, Silverados, Yukons, Tahoes, Escalades and Camaros
The V6 engines are shipped to Lansing Delta Township; Oshawa Flex; Hamtramck, Mich.; GM Thailand and end up in Impalas, Traverses, Enclaves, XTSs and Colorados.
The transmissions end up at the CAMI and Fairfax, Kansa, plants, and GM uses them in Equinoxes and Malibus.