{"id":17485,"date":"2025-05-06T01:54:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/tariff-fallout-gms-shift-cut-in-oshawa-triggers-strong-canadian-union-response\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T01:54:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:54:36","slug":"tariff-fallout-gms-shift-cut-in-oshawa-triggers-strong-canadian-union-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/tariff-fallout-gms-shift-cut-in-oshawa-triggers-strong-canadian-union-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Tariff Fallout: GM\u2019s Shift Cut in Oshawa Triggers Strong Canadian Union Response"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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General Motors\u2019 (GM) (NYSE:GM) decision to cut a third shift at its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant this fall has ignited a political and labor firestorm in Canada, with hundreds of workers impacted. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unifor, the country\u2019s largest private sector union, issued an urgent call for action this past Friday (May 2) after GM confirmed it will be transitioning the plant to a two-shift operation. The automaker attributed the decision to evolving market conditions, including the 25 percent tariff the US imposed on Canadian-made vehicles in March.<\/p>\n

GM spokesperson Marie Binette acknowledged in an email cited by CBC that the restructuring will \u201cimpact approximately 700 workers,\u201d though she stopped short of calling the job losses layoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to supporting employees through the transition,\u201d she said. <\/a><\/p>\n

Unifor sees the move as a betrayal of Canadian workers and taxpayers, who helped revive the Oshawa facility after it was shuttered in 2019. The plant, which builds light- and heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks for North America, reopened in 2021 with the help of significant public investment and union-backed production deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGM Oshawa was reopened thanks to the hard work of our members and significant investments by the federal and provincial governments based on a promise to maintain good jobs and production,\u201d said Chris Waugh, Unifor\u2019s plant chairperson in Oshawa, in Friday\u2019s release. \u201cWe will not sit idly by as that promise is eroded one shift at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lana Payne, national president at Unifor, also weighed in, commenting, \u201cWe will not allow GM to barter Canadian jobs to gain Donald Trump\u2019s favor. Cutting the third shift at Oshawa Assembly is a reckless decision that deals a direct blow to our members and threatens to ripple through the entire auto parts supplier network.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The timing of GM\u2019s announcement \u2014 just days before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to meet Trump in Washington \u2014 has further fueled tensions between the company and Unifor. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump tariffs are designed to crush Canadian production,\u201d Payne added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut GM doesn\u2019t get a free pass to abandon its commitments, and the US doesn\u2019t get to free ride in Canada. Canadians invested millions to revive this plant. Cutting jobs now has consequences. The company has six months to fix this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mounting economic pressure <\/h3>\n

The layoffs in Oshawa are only the tip of the iceberg. Jeff Gray, president of Unifor Local 222, said another 1,500 jobs in the broader supply chain could be affected by the shift cut.<\/p>\n

The union is urging the Canadian government to immediately review GM\u2019s status under the country\u2019s tariff remission framework \u2014 a system that grants tariff relief to companies on a conditional basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf GM wants to sell in Canada, they need to build in Canada,\u201d said Payne. \u201cThat message must be loud and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent report by Ontario\u2019s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) estimates that US tariffs and Canada\u2019s retaliatory measures could cost Ontario 68,100 jobs this year \u2014 most of them in manufacturing and related supply chains. <\/p>\n

The FAO warns that job losses could balloon to nearly 138,000 by 2029 if trade tensions persist.<\/p>\n

The same report predicts a \u201cmodest recession\u201d in Ontario in 2025, with the province\u2019s GDP growth cut in half and unemployment rising by 1.1 percent. Primary metal and motor vehicle parts industries are expected to be hit hardest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today\u2019s news from GM is extremely tough for the workers in Oshawa and their families. These are hardworking people who have helped build Ontario\u2019s auto industry. GM has reaffirmed its commitment to the Oshawa plant, which will continue building Ontario-made trucks for years to\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Doug Ford (@fordnation) May 2, 2025<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford also weighed in, calling the GM layoffs \u201cextremely tough\u201d in an X statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are hardworking people who have helped build Ontario\u2019s auto industry,\u201d Ford said. \u201cWe will continue doing everything we can to support a strong future for the facility and its workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under its collective agreement with Unifor, GM is obligated to meet with the union in the coming weeks to explore options to prevent or mitigate job losses in Oshawa. The union also plans to seek clarification on potential downstream effects, particularly at the St. Catharines powertrain plant, which supplies engines to Oshawa.<\/p>\n

GM, which was Canada\u2019s top-selling automaker in 2024 and retained that lead in Q1 2025, plans to refocus Oshawa production on Canadian truck sales, reducing exports to the US amid the tariff headwinds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Keep reading\u2026<\/span>Show less<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Motors\u2019 (GM) (NYSE:GM) decision to cut a third shift at its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant this fall has ignited a political and labor firestorm in Canada, with hundreds of workers impacted. Unifor, the country\u2019s largest private sector union, issued an urgent call for action this past Friday (May 2) after GM confirmed it will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}