Era ends as last GM truck produced in Oshawa

The last truck to ever be produced at the GM Canada assembly plant in Oshawa rolls off the line on Thursday, May 14, 2009.

After 44 years of production, a lone black GMC Sierra light truck rolled off the assembly line with emergency lights flashing at the General Motors truck plant in Oshawa, Ont., bringing an end to an era and to livelihoods for about 2,600 workers.

Employees turned the occasion into a fundraiser, raffling off the vehicle. A GM supervisor won ownership of the historic vehicle. Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children will be the beneficiary of the funds raised.

After that, it was time to leave, with many tossing their work boots on top of the barb wire over the chain-link fence to symbolize that their work here was done.

"This is it, I'm walking through the gate for the last time," said departing worker Johnny Niles, who brought a video recorder in on Thursday to record the final day for posterity (the full video is available at right). Niles had spent 29 years at the plant.

"It's pretty quiet in here. There's a lot of alarms going off because the robots are freaking out because there are no more jobs anymore," he narrated as he moved through the plant with his camera.

That will leave GM with just 3,800 workers in Oshawa, down from a high of 18,000 in the 1980s. The truck itself had its heyday in the "urban cowboy" period, and no one thinks those days are coming back, a GM official told CTV Toronto.

The recent spike in gasoline prices, that ended with the onset of recession, also reduced the market for the thirsty vehicles.

However, GM will continue to produce light trucks at a plant in Mexico.

Outside the plant one worker called it a "sad day for GM, a sad day for the province of Ontario," while another likened it to a "day of mourning."

Recriminations

Union officials lashed out at governments for allowing GM's most productive plant to shut its doors. But there was plenty of blame to go around.

"The decisions makers in Detroit should be hanging their heads in shame," said local union boss Chris Buckley.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he felt for the families of GM workers, and vowed to keep up the fight to maintain Ontario's 20 per cent share of the company's auto production.

However, an analysis of the ailing automaker's production plans by AutomotiveCompass suggests GM Canada will handle only 12 to 14 per cent of its business now through 2015.

McGuinty has said the province is negotiating GM's Canadian production levels, as part of the aid package the automaker is receiving from the federal and provincial governments.

Also on Thursday, former Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said the Oshawa closure didn't have to happen.

"This was General Motors' best truck plant. Best quality, best productivity," Hargrove told CTV Newsnet Thursday.

Ten million vehicles were produced at the plant since 1965.

Hargrove blamed the federal and Ontario governments for not doing enough to keep the plant open.

"Why didn't they say under the commitment General Motors made in return for public money four or five years ago they had to keep these jobs in Canada?" he asked.

The former head of the CAW painted a bleak picture for the future of the big three automakers.

"Not all of them can survive in their present form," he said, "you'll see a General Motors, but most of their operations will be in Asia, Europe and Latin America."

Hargrove also dismissed as "ridiculous" comments by critics who say GM's decline was brought on, in part, by greedy unions.

Observers note there is a sense of hopelessness seeping into the cost cutting negotiations between General Motors and the Canadian Auto Workers union.

The major sticking point appears to be costs associated with worker pensions.

Tomorrow is the deadline for a new cost slashing agreement, or GM won't be eligible for government funds.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney and files from The Canadian Press