General Motors has confirmed what it had previously announced, which is the end of the third shift at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario. That will result in the layoff of some 700 unionized workers. The Oshawa plant produces the Chevrolet Silverado.
GM has originally planned to cut the evening shift at the plant in September, but postponed that due to continued strong demand for light-duty Silverado pickups. But the automaker confirmed to Automotive News yesterday that there won’t be any further postponement. The plant will now operate with two shifts.
At the same time, preparations continue at the plant for it to eventually build the next generation of full-size pickups coming to market.
GM and the Unifor workers’ union, the Local 222 of which represents around 3,000 wage earners at the Oshawa plant, say they are collaborating to provide services and benefits to the laid-off workers. Unifor says that the decision to cut the third shift will affect 700 GM workers at the plant, as well as 1,000 other positions along the supply chain.
Fingers pointed at tariffs
Local 222 president Jeff Gray pointed out that the shift cut will result in 50,000 fewer light-duty trucks being built annually at the plant – which happens to match the 50,000 extra units GM CEO Mary Barra has announced will be built annually at the automaker’s plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This comes, of course, in the wake of the 25-percent tariffs imposed last spring by the U.S. administration on vehicles built in Canada and imported stateside.
Confirmation of the layoffs comes on the same day that Ottawa and the Ontario government announced the creation of a joint task force to coordinate strategies within the Canadian auto manufacturing sector. One focus of the new task force will be… job protection.