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GM Repurposing Oshawa Operations to Produce Masks

In a recent blog post, we highlighted how General Motors has partnered with ventilator manufacturer Ventec to repurpose operations and produce essential equipment for health care workers. Today, we’ll look at how GM Canada is preparing to repurpose portions of their Oshawa, Ontario plant to produce face masks.

To help meet the urgent need for masks in Canada during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, GM Canada is planning to manufacture approximately one million masks each month at cost for the Canadian government. "This is a proud day for all the employees of GM Canada to be preparing the Oshawa plant to make millions of face masks at cost to help Canada fight this COVID-19 Emergency," said Scott Bell, President and Managing Director at GM Canada. "We look forward to partnering with our government and union partners to make this happen quickly."

GM is also taking other actions in Canada and throughout North America to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including collecting and donating personal protecting equipment from its partners to assist the Public Health Agency of Canada. Vehicle production has been suspended and most of GM’s salaried employees are working from home. 
Preston is proud to be a part of the General Motors family and we fully support their efforts to produce masks and ventilators during this crisis. At this time, all Preston departments remain open with modified hours. We have a number of new measures in place to enforce distancing and ensure safe operations.