Automotive News Canada - November 2020 - 29

* N O V E M B E R 2 020

FCA Brampton:
Is no news,
good news?
'Nobody wants
to commit and
say, this is the
next-generation
Charger and
Challenger'

" confirm[ed] its intention
to continue production " of
the Charger, Challenger
and 300 in Brampton
through the life of the
agreement. Given the state
of the car market and the
uncertainty caused by the
pandemic, that's no small
victory for the union.
By JOHN IRWIN
And crucially, the plant
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA
is expected to continue to
operate on a six-day weekly schedule building vehicles that analysts say are
FIAT CHRYSLER
highly profitable for FCA.
Automobiles is sticking
" The fact is that our
by its aging but popular
Brampton assembly plant
Dodge muscle cars, securis probably the best [auto]
ing the Brampton, Ont.,
assembly plant we've got
plant for the
in the counnext three
try right
years but putnow, " Unifor
ting pressure
President
on Unifor to
Jerry Dias
find a solution
said.
for it in 2023.
The
Sam
Charger and
Fiorani,
Kristin Dziczek of the
Challenger
industry
Center for Automotive
are some of
analyst at
Research in Ann Arbor,
the oldest
U.S.-based
Mich., said that FCA
vehicles in
AutoForecast might be waiting until
the indusSolutions
the merger with PSA to
try, riding
LLC, said his decide what will be built
on nearfirm had pre- at FCA Brampton. Until
20-year-old
viously antic- the next contract expires
platforms
ipated a rede- in three years, the plant
by the time
will continue to build
sign for the
the next conthe Dodge Challenger,
Challenger
tract negopictured, and Charger,
and Charger
and the Chrysler 300.
tiations get
in 2023, but
PHOTO: FCA
under way.
plans have
repeatedly
According to sibling
been pushed back.
publication Automotive
" It's always tomorrow, "
News' Future Product
he said. " It's always being
Pipeline, redesigns for the
pushed out one more day,
Charger and Challenger
and nobody wants to comcould come in 2024, but
mit and say, this is the
details are scarce. Those
next-generation Charger
plans - or lack of plans -
and Challenger. "
will factor heavily in 2023
The future of FCA's
negotiations, especially
assembly plant in
since the investment in the
Brampton, Ont., will likely be a major focus of nego- Windsor plant might be
under way at that time.
tiations in three years
with Unifor, despite what
STELLANTIS RISING
the union and automaker
By then, Unifor will
agreed to during talks in
likely be negotiating with
October.
Stellantis, the company
The Brampton plant,
formed by the planned
which builds the Dodge
merger between FCA and
Challenger and Charger
French automaker PSA
and the Chrysler 300
Group. The pending mergsedan, will receive about
er, scheduled to close in
$50 million in investments
over the life of a new three- the first quarter of 2021,
year contract between FCA might have played a role
in FCA not committing
and Unifor, which ends
to a major investment in
in September 2023. The
Brampton this year, said
money, in part, will allow
for the introduction of new Kristin Dziczek, vice-president of industry, labour
variants of those vehicles.
and economics at the
FCA's Windsor, Ont.,
Center for Automotive
plant, meanwhile, will
Research in Ann Arbor,
receive upgrades worth up
Mich.
to $1.5 billion for the pro " A lot of FCA's plants in
duction of electric vehicles
North America are looking
or plug-in hybrids on a
at what the PSA merger
new platform.
brings and what the [comThe company, in a letbined production] footter to Unifor outlining
print is going to look like, "
its product commitments
she said. - ANC
under the contract, also

Oshawa resurrection
begins 'immediately'
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

For instance, the investments
at Ford and FCA centre around
electric vehicles, which still
account for a small percentage of
overall new-vehicle demand.
But for Unifor President Jerry
Dias, the investments pledged by
the Detroit Three mark an auto
industry revival.
" This proves that automotive
is not a sunset industry, but a
sunrise industry, " an emotional
Dias said during a Nov. 5 news
conference held after reaching
the GM deal.
GM said it will " immediately "
pump between $1 billion and $1.3
billion into the Oshawa plant to
build the Chevrolet Silverado
and GMC Sierra pickups in 2022.
The move will restart assembly lines, which fell silent in
December 2019, ending 112 years
of vehicle production in the
southern Ontario city.

NEW ERA

Assembly of the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado is expected
to begin in May 2022. GM Oshawa will be the only GM plant able to
produce both light- and heavy-duty pickups. P H O T O : G M C A N A D A

The surprise news delivered
who performed final assembly
a climactic ending to bargainon previous-generation light-duing, which included a $1.8-bilty GMC Sierra and Chevrolet
lion investment from Ford to
Silverado double-cab pickups,
assemble electric vehicles at
which were shuttled to the facits Oakville plant by 2026, and
tory from a plant in Fort Wayne,
a $1.5-billion spend by FCA for
Ind. At its peak in the 1980s, GM
green-vehicle production in
Oshawa employed about 20,000
Windsor by 2024.
hourly workers.
While Dias heralded the trio
DUAL-CAPABILITY LINE
of investments as a new era for
auto manufacturing in Canada,
Under the new deal, heavy-duGM's decision to resurrect
ty truck production is slated to
Oshawa was especially poignant
begin on one shift in January
for the labour leader.
2022, with a second shift being
" I thought we had a solution
added that March. Light-duty
in 2016 [bargaining], so the clotruck assembly is expected to
sure was ... disapstart in May 2022.
pointing, " Dias told
GM said
Automotive News
it would hire
Canada. " My famibetween 1,400
ly lives in Oshawa,
and 1,700 hourso it's personal for
ly workers. About
me. "
175 workers who
During the press
remain on layconference outlinoff from last
ing the automakyear's cuts will be
er's plans, Dias
recalled, Dias said,
cited his father, a
adding that the
90-year-old resident
union and compaof Oshawa, saying
ny will collaborate
that he would be
on rehiring workGM CEO Mary Barra
visiting him short- and her executive team
ers who took severly to celebrate the
ance packages, as
" never gave up " on
good news.
well as newcomers
Oshawa, according to
Indeed, GM's
to the auto indusUnifor President Jerry
Oshawa plans are
Dias. F I L E P H O T O
try.
a major victory
" [GM] did a lot
for Unifor, which had waged a
to transition that work force
vociferous campaign against
and try to provide soft landings
the decision to end assembly in
for people " in 2019, said Kristin
2019 by organizing a blockade of
Dziczek, vice-president of indusGM Canada headquarters and
try, labour and economics at the
launching a cross-border media
Center for Automotive Research
blitz.
in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The fight ended when Dias
" If [GM] thought they
reluctantly agreed to a compromight've needed 2,000 production
mise, which kept the plant open,
workers [in 2022], they might not
but only to stamp aftermarket
have done that. "
components. Since the start of
GM's decision stems from the
2020, about 300 workers have
growing popularity of the pickup
been building parts, with anothsegment in North America and
er 60 making face masks for the
the company's persistent invencountry's pandemic response.
tory issues during the COVID-19
That's a far cry from the 2,600
pandemic. Sales of the Silverado

and Sierra were up 0.6 per cent
and 6.8 per cent, respectively,
from a year earlier through the
first three quarters in the United
States, despite two months of lost
production in the spring.
The two models are currently built at plants in Michigan,
Indiana and Mexico, which
have largely been running on
overtime since they were redesigned for the 2019 model years,
said Sam Fiorani, industry analyst at U.S-based AutoForecast
Solutions.

INVENTORY CHALLENGE
" We can't build enough, " CEO
Mary Barra said on an earnings
call the same day the automaker
announced the Unifor deal.
Scott Bell, GM Canada president, said the investment would
help the company develop a " fast
response to strong consumer
demand " for two of GM's top-selling and most profitable vehicles
in North America.
The company has struggled
with inventory in the United
States and Canada since North
American vehicle assembly was
shut down for about two months
earlier this year. According to
Morgan Stanley, GM's supply of
vehicles on hand stood at 52 days
in October, down from 83 days a
year earlier.
GM does not provide inventory figures, though a U.S. GM
spokeswoman told sibling publication Automotive News that
inventory remains " very tight,
especially for pickup trucks. "
" We are currently running
our full-size pickup truck and
SUV plants at maximum capacity, and vehicles are being sold
almost as soon as they arrive
on dealer lots, " Lauren Langille
said.
Rebuilding truck inventories
" is of prime importance because
that's where profits come from, "
Dziczek said. - ANC

Automotive News Canada - November 2020

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