GM PLANT OSHAWA CLOSING !!!!

[fishindevil]

i just heard on the radio i guess general motors just made an announcement saying the plant in oshawa with over 2,000 people will close next june 2013 !!! not good news at all,sounds like the final nail in the coffin for oshawa ??? man that sucks has anyone confirmed this>?????

[lew]

I heard that news report too and it's gonna be sad news for alot of folks.

[Harrison]

Was just sent this via email..

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/oshawa-gm-plant-to-close-next-year/article2449283/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2449283

[chessy]

talking to a guy that works there ... there contract comes up this summer...it is a negotiating tool.... but you can never say never... the uaw has known about this for about 3 years..

[Pikeslayer]

FYI

The 'dedicated line' plant (produces Impalas & Equinox only) will close 5 years after it was originally scheduled to. Production of these vehicles will be moved to the Oshawa 'Flex' plant.

 

In Short, GM Oshawa is not closing. Just the outdated/past due plant. Still sucks though :(

[davey buoy]

I was going to say,what about all the government grants?Just gone?,or penalty if true?

[jedimaster]

I am pretty sure this was decided upon a long time ago, there were strikes and what not and the deadline was extended I thought.

[Ralph Field]

Without the auto pact and the high unemployment in the US I think that all auto plants in Ontario are living on borrowed time and we will see production shifted to the US or Mexico as Canadian plants age.

[Jigger]

So where do we pick up our refunds?

[NAW]

They are openning a new plant in Tennessee..

[grimsbylander]

 

 

 

[12footspringbok]

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

If our politicians think we can keep importing from China without lowering our living standards to that of the chinese they are dead wrong...

[muskymatt]

Don't worry, now that the cross border shopping has been changed, Canadian retailers are going to have a hard time to stay afloat, watch how many "going out of business" signs will be in Canadian store fronts and the economy will tank. Way to go Harper!! Next he's going to attack the environment!!

[grimsbylander]

Thanks for posting that.

 

If our politicians think we can keep importing from China without lowering our living standards to that of the chinese they are dead wrong...

 

 

When I watched that video I found it disturbing. It exemplified the level of secrecy and corruption I hoped only existed with other governments. As a man who has worked in manufacturing my entire life, I feel like my own country has turned on me in the name of money. Working hard, buying Canadian/American and fighting hard to compete against the China's or India's of the world means nothing if I cannot count on my own government to help. If China is my competition and they can produce better and cheaper, good on them. That's competition. But when money is filtered out of the country, taxpayers money, in order to benefit the competition, I see that as corruption. I'm small potatoes in all this and this is just my rant. I say introduce tarriffs to level the playing field. Let TV's and other electronics skyrocket in price. If it means me existing in a healthy North American economy, with a job that pays for a home, food and a tin boat to bob around in, I'll sell my damn TV's today. Ok, now I'm done.

[crappieperchhunter]

Sad news here in the Shwa for sure. A long time coming though. I do not work for GM but I do work in the manufacturing sector. And it's sad to see these things happen. In 1980 when I started into the workforce pretty much anybody who had half a brain and a reasonable amount of ambition could finish high school and with little effort land a job somewhere in the manufacturing field and make decent money.

 

Kids today finish high school and what is out there for them? I feel for them. Many will never know the "Good Middle Class" life that most my age have had. I really am concerned for there future.

[Steve]

crappie, that middle class life style is still out there....but it now takes some education and more than just "passing highschool".

 

folks will adapt. my old man did. others will as well.

 

my old man told me not to get into the manufacturing sector....poor guy took a huge pay cut when he was rehired after two years off....not fun.

 

its a changing world we are in...

[Gerritt]

GM Canada has confirmed it will wind down one of its last two lines in Oshawa, starting as early as this fall.

 

“As previously announced, the Consolidated Line will cease at the end of (the) scheduled lifecycle for the current-generation Impala. This is currently anticipated to occur in June 2013,” the company said in a statement Friday.

 

The consolidated line currently employs 2,000 people, the company said. That’s about half the company’s workforce in Oshawa.

 

It’s too early to say how many people will be affected by these “scheduling actions,” the company said.

 

“Some employees may elect to retire and others will be on indefinite layoff,” the auto maker said in a statement.

 

The production changes will begin as early as this fall, starting with the third shift, the company said. The second shift will be eliminated in the first three months of the New Year. And by June of 2013, the plant will be closed.

 

The union representing the workers said it had hoped to overturn the company’s decision to close the plant.

 

But the company has said repeatedly it has no new product to put in the plant, CAW Local 222 President Chris Buckley told the Star late Thursday night.

 

“It’ll be devastating for thousands of workers,” Buckley said, adding it’s not just the direct jobs in the plant that are affected but all the spinoff jobs as well.

 

Calling the decision “short-sighted,” CAW national president Ken Lewenza said, “It is also a betrayal of the tremendous work and sacrifices by our members that went into keeping General Motors afloat in 2008-2009, when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

 

“It appears today that General Motors has a very short memory,” he added.

 

Lewenza said this latest closure announcement flies in the face of what may actually be the best course of action for the company – using existing capacity well into the future.

 

The consolidated plant, considered by the company to be outmoded, builds the current model Chevy Impala, an Oshawa mainstay and one of the most popular family cars in the U.S. The same plant handles overflow work on the popular Chevy Equinox.

 

In December, GM committed to invest $68 million in its newer Flex plant to maintain some Impala production along with 350 jobs in Oshawa.

 

However, Oshawa would share production of the Impala with GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant. As well, some Equinox production would be extended for the first time outside Canada to a reopened U.S. plant.

 

The moves come as the Canadian Auto Workers enter contract talks this year with all three major auto makers.

 

Last year, the CAW’s counterpart in the U.S., the United Auto Workers agreed to link pay raises to company performance. Instead of fixed wage increases, the union accepted signing bonuses and profit-sharing incentives, concessions the CAW has unequivocally rejected.

 

The rising value of the Canadian dollar has also made it tough to compete with the U.S. for new investment, Buckely said.

 

The latest job losses come on top of the 2,600 jobs lost in 2009 when GM closed its truck plant in Oshawa, and the closure of its last remaining plant in Windsor, where it once employed 7,000 people.

 

GM had a Canadian workforce of 20,000 people as recently as 2005, but that number has dwindled in wake of its bankruptcy filing two years ago.

 

The company received $61.5 billion in bailout money from the U.S., Canadian and Ontario governments in 2009 as it went through bankruptcy protection, with politicians saying it was important to protect manufacturing jobs.

 

Currently, the Flex line handles the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car and Buick Regal mid-size sedan. In August, GM announced a $185 million investment to add the Cadillac XTS luxury sedan to the Flex line in the first half of 2012, securing 750 jobs.

 

The company said it originally announced in November 2005 that the consolidated line would cease production in 2008. But due to market demand for the current generation Chevrolet Impala and the subsequent addition of the Equinox, operations continued beyond that date.

[bushart]

I'm sure the folks in London can sympathize--when US Caterpillar bought Electro Motive---1st contract they came after 50% wage cuts or they'd move to the US where they take half the wages---You know the rest

 

Now--GM can get workers in Tennessee to do the work for 50% less---after bailouts---and there used to be an Autopact--where if you wanted to sell in Canada---you built in Canada-----not happening

 

Look at CP Rail---now owned by a US hedge fund---what's their contract requests---30-40% clawback on pensions

 

Remember your potato farm that posed as an ag firm and bought up lots of land in southern On.---then flipped into Mega quarry--owned by a Boston Hedge fund

 

 

Notice a trend????

 

I recommend watching Michael Moore's "Capitalism" A love Story

[crappieperchhunter]

crappie, that middle class life style is still out there....but it now takes some education and more than just "passing highschool".

 

folks will adapt. my old man did. others will as well.

 

my old man told me not to get into the manufacturing sector....poor guy took a huge pay cut when he was rehired after two years off....not fun.

 

its a changing world we are in...

 

 

All I meant is it was dead easy 30+ years ago. I know lots of people my age who I wouldn't hire to cut my lawn..lazy useless people. Ended up getting a good job just because there was lots of them out there. Those days are gone. There are still good jobs...always will be. But they are less and less and I don't think anybody can argue that.

[Steve]

nope, I don't think anyone can.

[bushart]

Here's another one boys---and I heard this many times 1st hand

 

We have to make sacrifices to be competitive.....Competitive??

 

Funny one word can mean several things

 

When profitable company wants you to take less to be able to compete with foreign Competition---it's good to take less to Compete

 

But when US Steel is tired of competeing with Stelco---They buy them and shut them down---See that's how they stay competitive---another version of how to Compete

 

Used to be laws against this

[Tdel]

More work going south.

 

Sea Doos & Mexico

 

 

Tom.

[ketchenany]

Here's another one boys---and I heard this many times 1st hand

 

We have to make sacrifices to be competitive.....Competitive??

 

Funny one word can mean several things

 

When profitable company wants you to take less to be able to compete with foreign Competition---it's good to take less to Compete

 

But when US Steel is tired of competeing with Stelco---They buy them and shut them down---See that's how they stay competitive---another version of how to Compete

 

Used to be laws against this

 

 

I'm in the advertising business. Years ago nothing was printed outside Canada or printed from outside.

Designed here and printed here!

Now most, if not all large advertising agencies are owned by off shore conglomerates or US including mine.

 

Creative is designed and then shipped to Canada, change a few words and goes to print.

 

This was NOT allowed all work had to be Canadian!

 

Our government just giving it away. I don't agree with the new cross border shopping law!

I like our American cousins but why make our own retailers suffer.

 

Who came up with that gem?