Demand for Equinox gives GM Oshawa a reprieve
Older manufacturing line will remain until 2017 as it helps Ingersoll plant produce popular CUV, saving about 900 hourly workers facing layoff
Strong North American demand for General Motors’ Chevrolet Equinox has bought its older Oshawa assembly line another year of life.
The automaker will invest $12 million to boost Equinox production on its consolidated line in Oshawa and related changes to its body shop at its CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll.
The investment will extend the life of the consolidated line to 2017, which employs 900 hourly workers, the automaker said Wednesday.
The line, one of two that GM operates in Oshawa, was expected to shut down in 2016. The CAMI plant employs 2,800 people.
“This new investment represents a very effective way for us to meet strong demand for the Chevrolet Equinox and it’s positive news for our community,” GM Canada president Steve Carlisle said in a statement.
The move builds on GM’s unusual Ontario Equinox “shuttle program” that sees the CAMI body shop ship excess units to the Oshawa plant for final painting and assembly, the company said.
The program, created in 2010, allows the company to ramp up production in a timely and cost-effective way, GM said.
Oshawa’s consolidated line also produces the previous-generation Chevrolet Impala.
GM’s newer flexible line produces the Buick Regal, the current model Chevrolet Impala, the Chevrolet Camaro and the Cadillac XTS. That line employs 2,800 hourly workers.
The fate of the Oshawa plant has been a concern ever since GM announced production of the Camaro would end this November, at a cost of 1,000 jobs. The next-generation Camaro is being produced in Lansing, Mich.
Most of the job reductions are being managed through a retirement incentive program, the company said.
However, the future of the plant remains in doubt unless it wins new product mandates. The company has said no decisions will be made until it signs a new contract with its unionized workforce. The current contract expires in late 2016.
Canada’s auto sector, considered a key engine of economic growth and highpaying factory jobs, has been under pressure in recent years as global automakers move their plants to lower-cost jurisdictions in Mexico and the southern U.S.
Canada’s falling dollar is expected to help stem the tide by making production here more cost-competitive.
GM has invested about $800 million in its Oshawa and St. Catharines operations over the past three years and recently announced a further $800-million investment in its CAMI plant.
GM’s Canadian Engineering Centre in Oshawa is currently hiring 100 software engineers after winning new mandates for work related to the connected car and green technology.