Anxiety starts to build for GM Canada workers amid layoffs

Anxiety is starting to set in for the General Motors Canada workers temporarily laid off due to supply chain disruption from labour action in the United States, where more than 48,000 autoworkers have been on strike for two weeks.

Half of GM’s approximately 5,900 hourly employees at its three Ontario plants were off the job this week as collective bargaining continued between GM and the United Auto Workers union. Canadian operations are expected to be even quieter next week due to a previously scheduled pause in production at the Ingersoll, Ont., plant that employs 2,400 hourly workers.

Even though the one week stoppage is unrelated to the strike, it will mean no work for the vast majority of GM employees if the strike persists, since most of the remaining workers in St. Catharines and Oshawa are making parts destined for the Ingersoll plant.

The lull has uncertain workers constantly checking Facebook for updates, said Tim McKinnon, the unit chairman for Unifor Local 199, which represents workers in St. Catharines, Ont. “The last few days I can see the anxiety start to build,” McKinnon said.

The Canadian workers remain supportive of their American colleagues who are agitating for better wages and health care as GM focuses on electric and automated cars, McKinnon said. “The longer it goes on, the more fear sets in,” he said.

About 150 workers will remain on the job at the St. Catharines plant during the planned stoppage next week, GM spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said Friday. She emphasized that the pause at Ingersoll had nothing to do with the strike.

Still, the anxiety is pronounced for workers in St. Catharines. There, senior members are receiving employment insurance plus a supplemental pay that amounts to about 65 per cent of their wage, while employees with less than six years of experience receive only EI, McKinnon said.

In Oshawa, temporarily laid off workers are receiving full pay thanks to a separate agreement that will ultimately see vehicle production wind down permanently in December. Ingersoll, meanwhile, has not yet been affected by the strike and, after the pause, expects to resume operations regardless of labour action.