The main car park at General Motors Canada’s St. Catharines components plant is to become strictly a GM vehicle-only zone, according to a Reuters report.
A GM spokeswoman told the news agency that the parking plan was suggested by employees and reflects their pride in GM products and their own work.
“They felt very, very passionate about making sure that there were only GM vehicles there,” Pam McLaughlin reportedly said, adding: “It’s certainly not a policy for General Motors of Canada. But for that area, this is something that obviously meant a lot to them.”
According to Reuters, McLaughlin said the new plan was not a bid to make employees switch to GM vehicles.
“We under no circumstance would insist on what any employee purchases, that’s their choice,” she reportedly said, adding: “I will say however we do provide a very generous employee discount programme.”
Reuters said that, beginning on Monday, hourly employees who drive a rival manufacturer’s vehicle must park in a smaller side car park and violators’ cars will be towed out of the main car park. Salaried workers began the new policy in March.
The company told Reuters that similar policies exist at some GM plants in the United States, but this is the first of its kind for the carmaker’s Canadian operations and does not extend to its other facilities in the country.
