GM To Close Windsor Plant

Things have gone from bad to worse for the province’s beleaguered automotive industry after General Motors announced plans to shut down its Windsor transmission plant in two years.

The factory, which employs 1,400 people, will close when its current production mandate expires for the four-speed automatic transmission it produces.

“Despite efforts and discussions with GM’s labour and government partners, the company has determined that its North American market outlook and product plans, including the shift from four-speed to more fuel-efficient six-speed transmissions, do not offer replacement products for the Windsor plant in the 2010 timeframe,” read a statement released by the automaker Monday.

This stunning announcement is a big blow to the province’s manufacturing sector which has suffered serious job losses. Two weeks ago GM said it was slashing 1,000 jobs at its truck facility in Oshawa by this summer.

Domestic automakers are having a tough time competing with imports, high gas prices and a strong loonie which is driving down the demand for large vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks.

“It’s always a big deal when you close a plant, it’s not something that we like to do, (but) it’s based what product is available for this plant and there just isn’t any,” said GM spokesman Stew Low.

Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, said he plans to try and negotiate buy-outs for the affected workers, many of whom  are close to retirement.

The CAW has already negotiated a new contract for its members with Ford and is currently in negotiations with GM and Chrysler. Hargrove said earlier this month that GM wouldn’t get a settlement “unless we can solve the product allocations problem at all three locations,” Oshawa, Windsor and St. Catharines.

Hargrove adds these cuts will have a devastating effect on Windsor’s economy.

“Our members who are most generous supporters of the United Way, for example, and lead the way in North America for giving, and it’s the auto workers in Windsor that lead the way, and it impacts on all of the service industries, the restaurants, the bars, the coffee shops, and the coffee trucks that deliver coffee and sandwiches to the gates, and it impacts on the property prices,” the union leader said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he spent part of the weekend trying to convince GM officials to keep the Windsor plant open.

“I spoke with (GM Canada president) Arturo (Elias) and I spoke to Buzz Hargrove and I asked if there was anything at all that we might do here in Ontario to stave off this job loss and the elimination of this product,” he said.

“To make a long story short, the answer came back ‘no.'”

Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton expressed his anger over the fact that automakers receive so much government funding but still close up shop and put taxpayers out of work.

“General Motors gets over $250 million of Ontario taxpayers money and then tells over 1,200 manufacturing workers in Windsor: ‘See ya. We’re not going to reinvest in you, we’re not going to reinvest in Windsor, we’re not going to reinvest in Ontario,”‘ he said.
  
“Is this your idea of a successful strategy to maintain manufacturing jobs?”

File photo