GM deal with Unifor would see pickup truck assembly come back to Oshawa plant

GM Canada says it will bring back pickup truck assembly work to its plant in Oshawa, Ont. if a new labour deal with its largest union is ratified.

Unifor had set a midnight deadline on Wednesday to reach a new, three-year labour deal with GM and had a mandate to strike from its members if the deadline passed.

But the union said just before the deadline that its master bargaining committee had had a breakthrough and wanted to keep talking

About four and a half hours after extending the deadline, a tentative deal was reached. A ratification vote will happen on Sunday.

Unifor said the deal is being unanimously recommended for 1,700 members working at GM plants in the southern Ontario cities of St. Catharines, Oshawa and Woodstock.

In a statement, the Detroit automaker said the deal would see more work for all three plants, including the return of pickup truck assembly to Oshawa’s facility.

“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,” GM Canada president Scott Bell told CBC News in a statement.

The company says the deal would bring between $1 billion to $1.3 billion of new investment  at Oshawa with the expected hiring of 1,400 to 1,700 hourly workers. That would mean as many as 2,500 people would be employed at the plant.

That’s about the same number as worked there when GM suddenly withdrew most assembly work from the plant about two years ago.

In addition to kickstarting Oshawa, the deal would bring $109 million worth of investments to St. Catharines and $500,000 to Woodstock.

The new as yet unknown pickup truck model would roll of the line starting in 2022.

3rd deal with Big 3

The union said on Wednesday afternoon that executives from GM came to Canada this week for face-to-face discussions as bargaining heated up.

Ahead of the deadline, the union said the company had not offered concrete commitments on future product plans, and was falling short of earlier agreements struck by Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Those deals, which were announced and voted on last month, will phase in about 2,000 new jobs over the next few years, helping the company bounce back from staffing cuts over recent months.

A key plank of the deal with Chrysler will see the company get government help to redesign its plant in Windsor, Ont., plant to produce at least one electric vehicle.

CBC