General Motors Co. will temporarily stop vehicle production at its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant starting Sept. 20, according to Automotive News, citing union officials.
Nearly all the plant's 2,600 workers will be temporarily laid off, according to Colin James, president of Unifor Local 222 that represents workers in Oshawa, Automotive News reported, adding that "a few" unionized maintenance workers will continue to work.
A GM spokesman told S&P Global Market Intelligence that the company will "continue to monitor the situation" but would not comment directly on the Automotive News report.
"The plant is currently building cars," the spokesman said in an email. "I can't speculate on tomorrow or next week."
The report comes a day after GM confirmed at least 1,200 workers at the Oshawa plant were temporarily laid off earlier this week after the United Auto Workers strike in the U.S. caused a shortage of truck parts at the Canadian plant.
The plant was unable to receive necessary components from U.S. plants that were closed from the strike that began Sept. 16, the GM spokesman said. Approximately 46,000 GM workers went on strike after the automaker and the UAW failed to reach a deal on their new contract.
The Oshawa plant is in charge of final assembly for GM's previous-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup trucks. The plant also assembles the Chevrolet Impala on a separate line, according to Automotive News.
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.
