Union: Cami plant’s new electric-vehicle battery wing will add 300 jobs

Southwestern Ontario’s electric vehicle revolution is rolling on.

Union officials who represent workers at the General Motors Cami plant in Ingersoll – the first fully electric vehicle assembly plant in Canada – announced the auto giant is adding a battery production department, an echo of major local investments by Volkswagen (St. Thomas) and Stellantis (Windsor).

In January, the London Free Press was first to report Cami had started to build a 37,000-square-metre (400,000-square-foot) addition to assemble batteries on site for two electric cargo vans it makes at the plant.

About 300 full-time unionized employees will be hired to work in the new facility, Canadian Auto Workers Local 88 leader Mike Van Boekel said in a statement.

Union officials “would like to thank everyone for their patience as we worked through the agreement,” Van Boekel said.

The jobs will be posted “at some point in the near future,” he noted, and they’ll be working in what will be known as Cami’s battery department. The plant has since December produced two related models of an electric cargo van.

It was earlier this month that The Free Press reported the Cami plant had unexpectedly closed for several weeks due to a battery shortage.

The plant employs about 1,500 workers. Before the shutdown, workers were on rotating shifts, two weeks on and four weeks off, to keep everyone employed. Workers were earning 60 per cent of their pay from employment insurance benefits and a top-up when off the job.

Cami assemble the BrightDrop Zevo 600, a large cargo van, and a smaller version, the EV410. Both will travel about 400 kilometers on a battery charge. Full-scale production of the BrightDrop began in December.

Cami has received BrightDrop orders from Hertz, Walmart, FedEx, Verizon, Merchants Fleet, a US fleet management firm, and DHL Canada.