Union members at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll have voted to ratify a new deal with General Motors to begin the production of electric commercial vans.
In a release on Monday, Unifor confirmed GM will spend $1-billion to transform the CAMI assembly plant into Canada’s first mass-market producer of electric commercial vehicles. The agreement follows the announcement of the tentative deal made by Unifor Local 88 and GM on Friday.
The union said members voted 91 per cent in favour of the deal and production of the BrightDrop EV600 is expected to begin in November 2021 as the Chevrolet Equinox program is phased out in 2023.
It's no secret that the auto industry has been hit hard over the last decade as production work moved to the United States and Mexico.
Going forward, the union and GM hopes to focus more on the production of electric vehicles within Ontario's auto industry.
"It is different, but hopefully it’s very successful, and there are other components of the vehicle that hopefully will come into our plant and hopefully be successful for some time," said Joe Graves, Unifor Local 88 president.
The pact brings the total investment negotiated by Unifor to nearly $6-billion after agreements were ratified with General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler in 2020 to increase electric vehicle production within the province’s auto industry.