The Canadian division of General Motors Co. is temporarily laying off approximately 1,200 workers at its Oshawa assembly plant after a strike in the U.S. caused a shortage of truck parts at the Canadian plant, the automaker said Sept. 18.
The Oshawa plant was unable to receive necessary components from U.S. plants that were closed from the United Auto Workers strike that began Sept. 16, a GM spokesman told S&P Global Market Intelligence. Approximately 46,000 GM workers went on strike after the automaker and UAW failed to reach a deal on their new contract.
GM halted production of its previous generation full-size pickup trucks since a lack of parts means the trucks cannot be built, the spokesman said. The Oshawa assembly plant builds GM's previous generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups.
GM said it is monitoring the situation but did not provide further details on when the workers might return or how the strike has impacted the company in terms of production volume or money.
Industry experts have said that GM could lose anywhere from $50 million to $100 million for each day the strike continues.
The Oshawa plant is set to end production by the end of 2019 as part of GM's restructuring plan but will be turned into a facility for autonomous-vehicle testing, GM announced in May. Since all full-time employees must be paid for their last 16 weeks of work before the plant switches roles, those temporarily laid off will still be paid, according to CBC News.
