Protesting arises in Oshawa after GM is set to scrap 4 production plants

Several
hundred General Motors workers have set up a blockade near the GM plant
in Oshawa, Ont., to protest the automaker's announcement that is will
cease production at the plant's pickup truck facility in 2009.

"We're demanding General
Motors reverse their decision," Canadian Auto Workers Local 222
president Chris Buckley told Canwest News Service this morning.

"We want a meeting with General Motors and we'll be here as long as it takes."

About 100 CAW members are involved and are preventing anyone from driving into the site via Colonel Sam Boulevard. However, workers are being allowed to pass the blockade on foot.

"I am encouraging my
members to remains on their jobs," Buckley added. "I want my members to
continue to build the best trucks and cars in the industry."

Speakingto reporters in a conference call ahead of the automaker's annualmeeting, Wagoner said the Oshawa plant, east of Toronto, will ceaseproduction in 2009 "and we don't have plans to allocate futureproducts" - meaning a probable permanent closure.

It's also "unlikely" there will be new mandates for the otherplants affected by Tuesday's announcement, two in the United States andone in Mexico, as GM moves "to address the rapid industry shift awayfrom trucks and SUVs."

As the market for pickups and large sport utility vehiclesvaporized amid high gasoline prices and slumping construction-industrydemand, the Oshawa plant lost one shift last year and GM announced inApril that the second shift would end in September. Each shiftrepresented about 1,000 production workers, plus associatedtradespeople.

Closureof the plant means GM will no longer produce trucks in Canada and willbe reduced to one auto plant in Oshawa and a share of a joint-ventureplant in Ingersoll, Ont.

Savings target

GM, which has lost a combined $51bn over the past three years, said it had no plans to allocate products to the four affected plants in the future.

The closures will save the firm $1bn a year from 2010, it said.

However, Mr Wagoner said GM was not ready to lay out a timetable for returning to profitability.

GM shares have lost almost 60% of their value since their peak in October 2007.

'Behind the curve'

Some analysts said that GM had dithered over what to do with the Hummer brand.

"Unfortunately, it's just a sign that once again they're behind the curve," said Peter Jankovskis, a chief investment officer with Oak Brook Investments, which owns GM shares in some of its portfolios.

"If they were looking to sell the Hummer brand, the more sensible thing would have been to do it three years ago," he added.

"They're not going to get anything for it. Just in terms of timing, it's a very poor example."