What about everyone else?

Dear editor:

The GM auto assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont. has been given notice that it will soon be shut down. A total of 2,600 workers will lose their jobs. Half of these workers — 1,300 — will take the retirement package.

Here is what the retired folks will get: a full monthly pension of $4,000 per month for life plus a voluntary cash buyout package ... a lump sum yet to be determined.

The 1,300 who still wish to work are in the right place at the right time.

Oshawa is a booming part of Canada; there is a shortage of 5,000 jobs for skilled workers in all occupations in the Oshawa area. GM will pay the entire cost of retraining all their former assembly plant workers into trades where the demand for skilled employees is greatest.

This plant has a history of past shutdowns.

In 2008, when the U.S. sub-prime loans disaster caused a global recession, the Oshawa plant was assembling GMC pickup trucks. GM trucks have a good reputation. Why then, was their plant shut down?

Here are the numbers. The assembly plant workers’ hourly wage, plus benefits package, was $77 per hour. The global recession caused a slowdown in all markets, good as those GM trucks were, the market for them had collapsed.

The workers were still in good shape. The usual buyout package and pension benefits worked to the advantage of the laid-off worker: A full pension was offered plus the buyout package. About half of those employees retired. GM moved those who wanted to work to other plants.

In 2009, a federal subsidy was introduced. When the plant reopened, the federal government offered GM a $2-million bonus for each employee they rehired.

Identifying the contrast in this picture is important. While Ontario workers were very well cared for; when a shutdown in the Alberta oil patch occurs, Alberta oil and gas workers are often forgotten about by the establishment in Ottawa.

During oil patch slowdowns, such as the present Alberta and Saskatchewan recession, there is very little federal money available to get the oil patch moving again.

Canada’s injured and wounded veterans must wish they had avoided military service and instead found employment in Ontario car and truck plants. Ernie Slump Penticton