General Motors will once again assemble pickups at its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant if Unifor members ratify a tentative deal reached early Thursday morning.
Unifor and the automaker made the announcement at essentially the same time Thursday morning — GM in a news release and Unifor President Jerry Dias at a news conference.
General Motors Canada said in a statement that it will spend between $767 million and $997 million on retooling the plant.
Dias called Oshawa a “complete assembly operations once again.”
General Motors will also invest $84 million over three years at its St. Catharines, Ontario, propulsion plant, where it will introduce new transmissions for the Corvette and new engines.
“Subject to ratification of our 2020 agreement with Unifor, General Motors plans to bring pickup production back to the Oshawa Assembly Plant while making additional investments at the St. Catharines Propulsion Plant and Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre,” General Motors said in its statement.
Oshawa was once one of the largest automotive plants in the world, producing some 620,000 vehicles a year at its peak.
More recently the plant performed final assembly on 2018 light duty GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado double-cab pickups, which were shuttled to the factory from a plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. The 2018-model-year trucks were sold alongside those from the 2019 model year.
That program ended in December 2019, throwing thousands out of work. Since then, Oshawa has been home to a smaller stamping operation, employing a few hundred workers.
This story will be updated.
