General Motors Co. is adding a third shift to its Oshawa, Ontario, plant to increase truck production and will soon begin transforming another Canada plant for electric vehicles, the automaker said Monday.
GM Canada is investing more than $2 billion in its Canada operations for truck production in Oshawa and electric delivery vans at the CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll. CAMI will be Canada's first full-scale EV plant when production of GM's BrightDrop electric delivery vans starts in the fourth quarter. BrightDrop is a startup within GM focused on providing electric delivery products.
The addition of the third shift in Oshawa, which had lost its vehicle production in 2019, comes as GM's light-duty truck plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is down this week and next because of the global semiconductor shortage.
Members and local United Auto Workers union leaders have been concerned about the additional truck production in Canada since GM decided in fall 2020 to restart Oshawa.
Rich LeTourneau, shop chairman of the United Auto Workers Local 2209 representing the hourly workforce at Fort Wayne, has been telling his members for years to not turn away any voluntary overtime shifts out of concern the plant could lose potential volume allocation.
"It's not good for our plant," he said. "I know we've got an opportunity to turn it around.
"As far as I'm concerned, our members will make the decision on whether they want to keep our volume here and if they don't, that's where it's going to continue to go."
LeTourneau added he knows "for a fact" GM wants to keep the volume at Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne Plant Executive Director Gary Duff told employees in a letter obtained by The Detroit News the Oshawa announcement "is great news from a company perspective, as we increase truck volume to meet the pent-up demand of our dealers and customers."
But he added: "I know from a local perspective this can be disconcerting, especially during this downtime. I want to assure you that Fort Wayne Assembly continues to play a critical role to support GM's growth strategies in full-size truck and SUV dominance."
Production of light-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierras is slated to start this spring at Oshawa. The plant has been producing heavy-duty trucks since November 2021. The addition of a third shift in Oshawa will bring the number of restored jobs at the plant to 2,600 since its production restart, GM said.
GM's Flint Assembly plant also builds heavy-duty trucks and a plant in Silao, Mexico, builds light-duty pickups. Flint, Oshawa and Silao were not affected by the semiconductor shortage that's halting production at Fort Wayne through the week of April 11. The shortage has cost the industry billions in the last year with automakers having to halt production at various plants while trying to keep their profit-rich truck sites going.
Fort Wayne operates on three shifts with more than 4,000 hourly workers. Fort Wayne workers, like those at Flint and Silao, are offered weekend overtime. Still, GM dealers do not have enough trucks to meet demand.
"With all of our full-size truck plants already running at maximum capacity, adding the third shift at Oshawa will allow us to meet the continued strong demand for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra and getting as many of our highest demand products to our dealers and customers," GM spokesman David Barnas said in a statement. "We will continue to look for ways to maximize full-size pickup truck production."
Meanwhile, GM's CAMI plant will stop production of the Chevrolet Equinox later this month for retooling to begin production of the BrightDrop electric vans: the Zevo 600 and Zevo 400. Production of the recently renamed Zevo 600, formerly the EV600, will begin in December 2022 at CAMI followed by production of the smaller Zevo 400, formerly the EV410, van in late 2023.
Until the CAMI plant is ready, BrightDrop has been doing low-volume production of the Zevo 600 at a Michigan-based automotive supplier KUKA AG plant.
The Equinox is still built at two GM Mexico plants: Ramos Arizpe Vehicle Assembly and San Luis Potosi.
