Good news from GM
After months upon months, years upon years of worrying, it appears that the future of the Oshawa Assembly can be put to rest.
In negotiations that stretched past the midnight deadline, Unifor and General Motors were able to come to a deal, and it looks like it is good news for the city. While the full details of the deal are still not clear as The Oshawa Express goes to press, what is known is that new product will be coming to the plant and that as a result, there will be new jobs. Jerry Dias, the union’s national president, says that this new deal will see hundreds of millions of dollars in investment come to a plant that many saw as on its way out the door.
Part of that investment will include an innovative new feature, as the Oshawa plant will be the first and only in North America to produce cars and trucks. Those that said the era of an Oshawa-built truck ended with the closure of the truck plant in 2009 have been proven wrong, and it would be safe to say that many of those people would be happy to be proven incorrect on this one.
But as with any deal, whether it be a union contract or otherwise, there is the question of money and at what cost is the plant being saved? Buried in the news release from General Motors after the tentative deal was announced was that it would be working with the government on potential support. That support is unknown at this point, although a likely option would be the federal government’s Automotive Innovation Fund.
According to media reports from earlier this month, the federal government will be changing some of the key terms of the Automotive Innovation Fund, instituted during the Harper era. Rather than providing loans, the fund would also be able to provide grants. Automakers signaled earlier this year that this was the direction they wanted to see the fund go, as those loans were subject to taxes.
So while one cannot shoot down the good news that this new deal brings to Oshawa, one also cannot ignore the possibility of money going out the door in Ottawa in order to keep the plant open. Let’s just hope that this investment pays off – and based on the quality of products that have made their way out the doors at the Oshawa Assembly in years past, that shouldn’t be a problem.