There’s a twist on a Tom Waits song that keeps ringing in my head. “[S]he’s got big plans and they don’t include you.”The “she” in this case is Mary Barra. And the “you” is General Motors’ Oshawa plant.For there it was, unallocated yesterday.And here it is, unallocated today.The announcement out of the auto giant on the future of the Oshawa plant arrived a few days later than expected, but substantially affirmed the bad news announced last November and, in fact, the bad news feared by workers when Unifor last came to an agreement with GM, in the fall of 2016.That contract was packaged as a big win for Oshawa, with a commitment from GM to invest $400 million to make the plant distinct among its North American peers in its ability to build both cars and trucks. Oshawa hadn’t seen truck assembly in a long while. So it was a huge deal when Unifor national president Jerry Dias started hinting at a “hot-selling pickup truck” headed Oshawa’s way.The Chevrolet Silverado was hot alright. So hot that it had become GM’s best-selling vehicle. Upgrading lines at U.S. and Mexican facilities for the new-model 2019 Silverado and GMC Sierra models would leave the company with a painful production shortfall unless another plant could be designated to fill in production of the outgoing 2018 models. Oshawa’s consolidated line, which had been repeatedly slated for closure over the years, fit the bill, not for full production, but for the painting and final assembly of the unfinished bodies of the outgoing 2018 model shipped from Fort Wayne, Indiana. GM started calling the manoeuvre the “Oshawa Shuttle.” Fort Wayne, meanwhile, was able to transition from last-generation pickups to the all-new version, which carry significantly higher sticker prices and represent CEO Mary Barra’s push to grow market share with high-margin models. In the first quarter of this year, trucks, ...
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