CAMI production set to resume in November with fewer workers and only one shift

Employees at the General Motors CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont., have learned the facility will remain closed until mid-November following a shutdown that began in April. When production resumes, it will be with fewer workers and fewer shifts than expected.

"They're upset. They're frustrated, understandably," said Mike Van Boekel, chair of UNIFOR Local 88. "We have a lot of couples here, a lot of partners that both work here, and it's going to be a lot tougher on their families."

GM said in a statement back in the spring that the halt to production was a direct result of the market and available inventory to build the BrightDrop electric delivery vehicles manufactured at the plant. Two models of the BrightDrop Zevo are made on site, and sales have lagged, with numbers released by GM showing a total of 427 vehicles sold in Canada in 2024 and 1,529 in the United States.

The plant is now set to resume production on Nov. 17 with only one shift per week, Van Boekel said. With the line slowing down, roughly 650 employees are expected to remain laid off.

When the plant shut down in the spring, around 500 permanent layoffs had been expected.

"I think an extreme optimist might have hoped we were coming back on two shifts," Van Boekel said. "But sales just haven't been there. The volumes haven't been there."

A spokesperson for GM confirmed that production of the BrightDrop vehicles would resume on Nov. 17, and added that the battery line will not be resuming production, as part of "a temporary adjustment to align production to customer demand and manage battery inventory levels."

Van Boekels believes that once their remaining inventory of batteries runs out, GM will start bringing new ones in from the U.S. — a decision likely made to avoid causing friction with U.S. President Donald Trump.

He would like to see the federal government stepping back in to improve infrastructure across the country for electric vehicles. There's a good market for the BrightDrop electric delivery vehicles, Van Boekel said, with demand still increasing marginally each month.

"Hopefully it keeps going up, but we should be able to retain one shift," he said. "But obviously, they didn't put all the money into this plant just for one shift."