Former Windsor GM plant worker says Oshawa 'got kicked in the gut'

Feelings of devastation rushed back to former workers of the Windsor General Motors (GM) transmission plant — which closed in 2010 — with GM's announcement to close the plant in Oshawa, Ont.

While workers in Windsor received two years of notice for closure, the Oshawa plant only has one.

"It's going to be very, very gut-wrenching for everybody," said Ken Bruner, who used to work at the Windsor plant. "It brought back every single emotion I had in 2008."

GM announced 10 years ago it would close Windsor's transmission plant, with 1,400 salaried and hourly workers projected to lose their jobs.

Aside from the plant in Oshawa, plants in Detroit, Mich., Warren, Mich., White Marsh, Md. and Warren, Ohio will be unallocated in 2019. Closures will affect over 5,000 hourly workers from both sides of the border directly.

The current GM contract with the Oshawa plant does not have any vehicles being assembled beyond December 2019. According to Unifor's auto director, the union knew they had to go back to negotiate in 2020.

"Right now they just got kicked in the gut," said Duncan St. Amour, who worked at GM for just under 30 years in Windsor before he lost his job.

On his last day, he remembers people crying and how devastating it was. Not only that, he said the plant disappearing changed Windsor.

"Everybody who makes a paycheque spends that money," he said. "And when those paycheques are not like they used to be, it's totally different."

Now he's worried about his pension because it's not fully funded yet, saying there's about 20 per cent left.

"I am very concerned, because General Motors, they're like the Grinch," he said.