The General Motors car plant in Oshawa, Ont. has been a staple of North America auto manufacturing for decades.
In recent years, the company has been whittling down the number of employees at the plant to just over 2,500 today鈥� a far cry from its heyday when it employed approximately 23,000 people in the 1980s.
The Nov. 2018 announcement that GM is closing it down effectively ends more than a century of vehicle manufacturing in the city.
Timeline:
1832
(The Parkwood Estate)
John McLaughlin emigrated to Ontario from Cavan, Ireland and started a . By the turn of the last century, it became the largest of its kind in the British Empire before operations pivoted to automobiles.
1921
One of the earlier automobiles which came from the automobile facility in Oshawa run by the McLaughlin family. (The Parkwood Estate)
Two years after , its Oshawa operations becomes the company鈥檚 the export manufacturing base. GM rapidly expands it car production with a focus on Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Oaklands.
1953
The main on November 7, 1953.
1980s
(P199 posted on June 2016/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
After an $8-billion investment in its operations, the GM Autoplex in Oshawa becomes the crown jewel of General Motors Canada鈥檚 manufacturing operations. It becomes one of the producing 730,000 cars and trucks a year.
2005
In stunning move, GM announces it will , including the Oshawa No. 2 plant and eliminate 3,750 jobs at its car plant.
2007-2008
The and Pontiac Grand Prix lines are both discontinued in June and November 2007 respectively; production of the Buick LaCrosse is moved to Kansas City, Kansas.
2008
Nelson Gonzalez washes new Chevrolet cars offered for sale at the GM Felix dealership in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. (AP / Damian Dovarganes)
GM receives a $60-billion bailout package from Canadian, Ontario and U.S. governments. In exchange for $10.8 billion of government assistance, federal and provincial governments will take a 12 per cent take of company shares.
2009
翱蝉丑补飞补鈥檚 along with three other North American plant closures that year. The move effectively ends decades of GM鈥檚 position as the country鈥檚 largest automaker and in Canada for GM.
2010
(Nick Ares posted on Nov. 5,2009 / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)
The plant begins producing its fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro and the Chevrolet Equinox working with the CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll, Ont.
2012
In 2012, in Oshawa, a move that was first announced in 2005, and led to a loss of at least 2,000 jobs.
2013-2015
The main plant begins building the Cadillac XTS with the was capable of building a model from nearly 鈥渆very GM brand.鈥� By 2015, the Automotive News Data Center said GM produced nearly in Oshawa.
2018
On Sunday, CTV Toronto broke the news that GM Canada would be ceasing all production in its Oshawa, Ont. plant. (GM Canada)
In February, the Oshawa Assembly plant starts making Light Duty GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverados in addition to Cadillac XTS and Chevrolet Impala. GM boasts that the 翱蝉丑补飞补鈥檚 plant was 鈥溾�� and the 鈥渙nly assembly plant in North America capable of building both cars and trucks in the same plant.鈥�
November 25, 2018
Members of Unifor, the union representing the workers of Oshawa's General Motors car assembly plant, parked their cars to block the entrance to the plant, Ont., Monday Nov 26 , 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima)
General Motors announces the , essentially ending 111 years of auto manufacturing in Oshawa.
With files from , General Motors Canada
