The day Oshawa, Ont., autoworkers have dreaded for months has arrived, as GM Canada is poised to cut a shift at the city’s plant, costing over a thousand workers their jobs.
Up to 1,200 workers are expected to complete their final shift on Friday as the company scales back its Canadian operations, according to the union president who represents them.
“We did everything we could … we’ve made our arguments to General Motors,” said Jeff Gray, Unifor Local 222 president, on Wednesday.
GM is cutting the plant’s midnight shift, which is one of three shifts. Seniority rules will apply, Gray said — meaning high-seniority members will be bumped to the remaining shifts, while lower-seniority members across all three shifts will lose their jobs.
Gray said these workers will be left in a “heartbreaking” position as they walk into their shift just like any other day, while knowing they won’t have a job next week.
“You feel very nervous and anxious that you can continue to provide a living for yourself and your family,” said Gray.
CBC News reached out to GM Canada for comment.
The Detroit-based automotive manufacturer said it was cutting the plant’s midnight shift in May. That announcement came a month after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs targeting the auto sector.
At the time, spokesperson Jennifer Wright told CBC Toronto that “forecasted demand and the evolving trade environment” were behind the cut.
Meanwhile, GM is adding 250 temporary workers to its plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. Both the Oshawa and Fort Wayne plants build the Chevrolet Silverado.
Layoffs at the Oshawa plant were initially slated to take place in November, but were delayed to the end January.
That delay gave union officials more time to lobby the federal government to secure a trade deal with the United States and push for GM to reverse its shift reduction.
When the shift cut was first announced, Unifor said around 2,000 workers would be laid off. Gray said that number has since gone down to between 1,100 and 1,200 workers, due to work done by in-plant representation.
But earlier this month, Gray called on national union leaders to step up their support for workers, saying auto jobs across the province are “disappearing.”
“From the eyes of the membership, the pushback hasn’t been enough,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.
Unifor national needs to do more to protect auto jobs, says Ontario local union head
Speaking Wednesday, Gray said the union will continue to advocate on behalf of workers to bring more jobs to Oshawa.
He said plans are underway to create programming that retrains autoworkers who have been laid off, hosted in the past in Oshawa and other parts of Ontario at locations known as action centres.
This programming may include sessions on resume writing skills and basic computer skills, he said.
“We will do everything in our power to make sure that is up and running as fast as possible and help members through the transition,” Gray said.
GM’s layoffs come two days after the prime minister met with Canada’s premiers in Ottawa, ahead of a busy year that will see a mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA).
Canada’s leaders have met periodically over the last year to discuss a path forward as Trump’s tariffs continue to punish Canadian industrial sectors.
GM increasing production in Indiana as it cuts hundreds of jobs in Oshawa
In December, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Congress that CUSMA has been “successful to a certain degree,” but there need to be changes before Trump agrees to extend it.
Greer listed a series of conditions that the administration wants met in order to continue the pact beyond its 2036 expiration date. Those include Canada’s dairy quota system and its online streaming law, which impacts tech giants like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube, and the ongoing boycotts in some provinces, Ontario included, of U.S. alcohol.
Trade talks with the United States and Mexico are expected to ramp up later this year as the CUSMA review gets into full swing.
Gray said he is eager to see what comes out of Wednesday’s meeting. He said he hopes the premiers encourage the federal government to “relentlessly pursue” the U.S. and renew CUSMA.
“And [then] we can go back to normal,” he said. “That’s the best answer for us, is go back to the United States, our most reliable, dependable trading partner for the last 100 years.”
