General Motors will invest $170 million converting the Oshawa assembly plant it had intended to close into a parts production facility and autonomous vehicle test track. GM and labour union Unifor announced May 8 their new agreed-upon plans for the plant. The 60-plus-year-old facility will be transitioned into a parts producer for GM and other auto industry clients; the vehicle assembly stations will go away, and be replaced by machines for stamping aftermarket parts. The facility will also act as a hub for autonomous vehicle (AV) testing, and its redevelopment will see the construction of an AV test track. GM says 300 jobs will be retained with “the potential to grow and generate significant additional jobs in the coming years.” Unfortunately most of the roughly 2,600 hourly workers currently employed in Oshawa assembly will still lose their jobs, though there will be opportunities for them to move to other GM plants in Ontario. Driving
