Saturday, July 11, 2009

Great News For The Canadian Auto Industry!


In what I hope is sign of good things to come, Chrysler Canada has decided to keep the third shift running at the Windsor mini-van plant:


"Chrysler Canada Inc. has thrown a lifeline to 1,200 Canadian workers – and the beleaguered city of Windsor, Ont. – with a decision Friday to cancel its plans to end a third shift at its minivan plant this summer.


Canadian Auto Workers union president Ken Lewenza said he was contacted by the company Friday with the news that 1,200 workers will not face layoffs at the end of this month as earlier announced. “It's fantastic news,” Mr. Lewenza said in an interview. “It's great news for our members and it's a boost for a city that has the highest unemployment rate in Canada.


Chrysler notified the union in March that it would end the third shift at its minivan plant at the end of July following an annual two-week vacation shutdown this month."


Not only does this save the 1200 Chrysler jobs, it also saves thousands of parts suppliers jobs based in southern Ontario as well, Magna most notably. And it was leaked this week that GM is planning on building the new Cadillac at the Oshawa car plant, which will also save or increase the number of workers there, as well as spin-off jobs.


All in all some great news for Ontario and Canada.

7 comments:

Rural and Right said...

Definitely good news for the CAW. However on the Canadian Japanese Automakers side I think that for us at Honda of Canada it will be some time before plant two gets back up to 2 shifts ... my guess is next year sometime.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait for Ford to Pattern Bargain with the CAW.

The howling and squealing coming out of Lewenza's gob hole will be amazing.

jad said...

Okay, I live on Vancouver Island, so my local paper would likely not make this a headline, but Paul, the is is the first and only time I have seen these extremely positive developments reported in the media. Has there been more interest shown by the Ontario media, or is this another case of "bury the good news" ?

Then today there is this piece in the Star, which basically pours cold water over the whole plan for GM in Canada. Any comments ?

paulsstuff said...

That's typical of reporting on the North American automakers Jad. With the Impala GM is guaranteed sales through fleet and police cuiser sales, which is a huge market.

Cadillac has a loyal following and is good value for a luxury sedan. The GM plant is working weekends now to keep up with demand for the Camaro's, and GM has plans for changes and feature to keep it interesting for the years ahead.

And the comments about the Buick Regal are just plain ignorant. Buick is one of the top-selling brand names outside of North America, including China, which has a rapidly growing market.

The best way to put it in perspective is to look at auto anaylyst Denis Derosier's comments about Chrysler. He continuously stated Chrysler was doomed because it made too many large vehicles. When the Fiat aquisition was complete, he did a complete 180 saying Chrysler was doomed because American's want large vehicles, and won't buy small cars.

And not one person in the media had the brains to call him on it.

Anonymous said...

"The GM plant is working weekends now to keep up with demand for the Camaro's, "

Don't tel Dr. Fruit Fly / Suzuki that people are killing Mother Gaia by buying CO2 spewing cars that might just be fun to drive.

Although I wonder if there is a correlation between increased Camaro sales and the drop in global temperatures ?

Anonymous said...

more good news from the mid-western Ontario auto parts supplier now recalling workers who have been laid off since March.

Here's where it gets interesting.
In calling back the laid-off workers we're finding that many went on to land other jobs already.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh . . Dulton just put a shiv in this news with his $10,000 bribe money to buy electric vehicles.