DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Co. has added 700 workers to its Oshawa, Ontario, factory near Toronto to make the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro convertible muscle car and the new Buick Regal midsize car, the company said Monday.
Camaro convertible production is scheduled to start in January, while the plant will start making Regals early in the spring.
The added employees began work Monday on a second shift at one of the factory's two assembly lines. Just two months after GM added a third shift on another line to make more Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicles, one of the company's hottest sellers. The Equinox looks like a sport utility vehicle but is more fuel efficient and handles better because it's based on car underpinnings.
GM said the 700 jobs, coupled with those added for Equinox production, have secured more than 1,300 jobs at the plant including the recall of 1,000 laid-off workers and the hiring of 300 new employees.
The Equinox and its sister vehicle, the GMC Terrain, are made at a plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, but GM figured out a way to assemble them at Oshawa as well to handle high demand. The Buick Regal is now imported from Germany, but Oshawa will begin supplying the U.S. and Canada next year.
The Oshawa plant now makes the Camaro hardtop and the Chevrolet Impala.
