U.S. strike may shut Oshawa plant Monday
General Motors Corp. says it will stop output at its truck plant in Oshawa on Monday if a strike at a parts maker in the United States doesn’t end soon.
The auto giant said yesterday one U.S. truck assembly operation is already down and three similar operations, including one in Oshawa, would be idle after a shift last night because of the strike at American Axle & Manufacturing south of the border. The strike has stopped production of critical axle parts. Most GM assembly plants have only small inventories to maintain vehicle output.
A senior union official said the walkout at the parts maker wouldn’t affect production of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups in Oshawa until early Monday because the Oshawa truck plant doesn’t operate during weekends. The plant employs about 2,300 workers.
"It wouldn’t really have an effect until then here," said Keith Osborne, plant chair for the Canadian Auto Workers in Oshawa.
GM said the other affected truck plants would be in Flint, Mich., and Fort Wayne, Ind. They employ several thousand workers.
Earlier this week, GM idled its truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., because it had run out of parts.
Other GM assembly plants at risk due to their reliance on American Axle parts include operations in Arlington, Tex.; Janesville, Wisc.; and Silao, Mexico faxless payday advances. They make sport-utility vehicles.
GM’s moves follow the temporary closing of the big Chrysler minivan plant in Windsor because of a shortage of parts from TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
Members of the Canadian Auto Workers walked off the job at TRW in a contract dispute earlier.
Analysts have said a short work stoppage could allow GM to reduce high inventories of trucks and sport-utility vehicles, but have cautioned that a longer disruption could be costly.
About 3,600 members of the United Auto Workers union in Michigan and New York walked off the job on Tuesday against American Axle in a dispute over wages. Talks between the two sides had not resumed yesterday.
American Axle had stockpiled parts for GM in advance of the strike, and most analysts had projected that it would take a week or so before shortages began to slow GM down.
With files from the Star’s wire services