Against the odds, General Motors is once again building pick-up trucks at its Oshawa, Ontario plant, just outside Toronto, where GM has built vehicles for more than 100 years.
In November 2018, the company announced plans to permanently close the Oshawa plant, which has been the home of GM of Canada since the early part of the 20th Century. The closing was part of a sweeping corporate re-organization, which also led to the shutdown — and later sales — of a big GM assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
“The reopening of Oshawa Assembly is an historic accomplishment for GM Canada and our many community partners who worked together to bring us to this very happy day,” said Scott Bell, GM Canada president and managing director, in a statement. “The rapid retooling, hiring, and training needed to reach today’s start of production was an extraordinary accomplishment.”
Pressure and protests by Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, pushed GM into promising to re-open Oshawa plant during interim negotiations in 2019 and then contract negotiations 2020.
“Today is an incredibly important day for all of you, your families, and the community of Oshawa,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor president, as the plant reopened. “It is so incredible to see so many of you who maintained your recall rights.”
GM reverses course
The reopening of the Oshawa assembly line comes after the union’s largest and most aggressive campaign aimed at saving the plant, Dias said.
The Oshawa plant will operate on two shifts, employing about 800 workers.
The production from Oshawa comes as GM is engaged in battle for market share in the pickup segment with Ford, Stellantis and now Toyota, which is bringing a completely updated Tundra full-sized pickup truck to market this fall.
Dias said the return of truck assembly work to the Oshawa plant is a significant moment in Canadian manufacturing history, marking the first time that an assembly line has been successfully reopened.
“I was full of joy, pride, and so proud of our members getting this done less than a year from bargaining where we negotiated to get this truck back. Here we are today, with one rolling right off the line,” Jason Gale, Unifor Local 222 Plant chairperson said.
“We never stopped fighting for this. What kept us going was keeping a small operation of 300 people. It kept our foot in the door and kept the lights on. Now, we see a truck rolling off the line. I’m so happy. Happy for Durham. Happy for Oshawa. Happy for all the families that will benefit from this,” he added.
The Japanese have never been a sales threat to the Big 3…ever. since Tundra is still light duty sharing a platform with Tacoma, their biggest threat will be thr onslaught of light duty EV trucks and SUvs coming in the next few years
“While Americans can’t seem to get enough of the mid-size pickups from Japanese automakers, they absolutely shun their full-size trucks. According to data from WardsIntelligence, the highest market share Toyota has seen with Tundra was 9.1% and that was in 2007. It currently hovers in the 5% range. It’s even worse for Nissan. The best the Titan was able to muster was 3.5% of the market in 2005. Today it’s at 1.5%. With the Detroit Three commanding 94% of full-size pickup sales this year, it might almost make more sense for Toyota and Nissan to share a large truck platform.” Autoline