1,000 new GM jobs in works for Oshawa

[Elvisuperman]

1,000 new GM jobs in works for Oshawa

General Motors will build a replacement for the Chevrolet Impala and produce a Cadillac sedan at its Oshawa car complex, creating up to 1,000 new jobs during the next few years, industry officials say.

The Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association revealed Tuesday in a "critical automotive intelligence" note to member companies that GM will start producing a newer Impala or its replacement vehicle in February 2013, and the Cadillac XTS sedan in January 2012 in Oshawa.

A senior official for the Canadian Auto Workers said later the addition of those vehicles should generate between 750 and 1,000 jobs in an extra shift at GM's Oshawa complex.

Keith Osborne, a union staff representative responsible for GM, said though the company has not confirmed the additional products, the association's information makes "a lot of sense."

"It fits the configuration we have at the Oshawa site and is good news," he said. "It will mean an extra shift from what we have now."

GM plans to unveil a Cadillac XTS concept model at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week.

The manufacturers association's disclosure follows recent auto production announcements by GM in Ingersoll and Toyota in Woodstock that will boost employment in southern Ontario's recession-ravaged manufacturing sector.

The Oshawa complex builds the Camaro muscle sports car with one shift on a flexible manufacturing line and employs two shifts to assemble the existing Impala full-size car on another line.

GM's workforce in Oshawa totals about 4,600.

However, GM has disclosed to union officials in the past that it planned to eventually phase out production of the Impala by early 2013, without identifying a replacement product.

It is not clear whether the new product would carry the Impala badge or another name.

The company recently announced plans to begin producing the Buick Regal mid-size sports sedan on the flex line during the first quarter of next year. It will likely create about 750 jobs and another shift on the flex line, according to the union.

Although GM has indicated more products are coming to Oshawa, it has not identified them or the timing for production.

A GM spokesman declined to comment on the parts association's note about the Impala and Cadillac models.

Osborne said the union has pressed GM for details on a replacement product for the Impala because of the company's intentions to phase out the model.

"But they have been unusually silent on it except to say, `We're going to need workers,'" he said.

At one point several years ago, GM announced it would end Impala production in Oshawa, but the company changed its mind months later because of the car's continuing popularity in the U.S. market.

The parts association's note is unusual because automakers announce models and plants, rather than suppliers. That allows automakers to control information flowing to competitors and to maximize publicity for the product.

The note from the association's new president, Steve Rodgers, says GM's Oshawa and Hamtramck, Mich., assembly operations would share production of the next generation of Impala models in a "sourcing change."

Rodgers added GM's decision to build the Impala in both plants on its Epsilon platform could eventually be used as leverage in contract negotiations with the CAW.

He also said that when GM produces all four vehicles in Oshawa, it will have an annual capacity of less than 400,000, down from earlier estimates of 500,000.

"The volume issue is something the APMA will monitor closely to make sure we are aware of volume changes and the impact it will have on our supplier members," he said.

GM, the country's biggest automaker, has received about $10.6 billion in aid from the federal and Ontario governments in the last year to help it restructure operations and stay alive.

That has included closing a truck assembly operation in Oshawa and upheaval at the nearby car complex with thousands of job losses.

link at...http://www.thestar.com/business/auto...rks-for-oshawa