Expert says early involvement key to helping GM workers retrain
When it comes to retraining workers who have lost their jobs, an expert says that it’s crucial to get involved early.
With news that job losses are looming for Oshawa’s General Motors workers, staff at the Durham Workforce Authority is already in action. The closure of the plant next year is expected to put nearly 3,000 people out of work, most of whom live in the Durham area, with many living in Peterborough and Northumberland.
“Getting in and supporting them while they’re still employed is the best-case scenario,” said Heather McMillan, executive director at the Durham Workforce Authority, which keeps tabs on local labour market information. “We need to start talking about a plan now, not waiting until workers are displaced.”
For example, when a Syncreon plant in Durham Region was preparing to close several years ago, literacy training was offered in the plant before and after work, allowing employees to upgrade literacy skills while they were still employed.
“Doing it right there in the plant reinforces community and that they’re all in it together,” said McMillan.
She says the upside to the latest GM upheaval is that there are new employment opportunities on the horizon in Durham.
McMillan says that the cannabis sector could be a “lateral move” for autoworkers, noting there are as many as ten cannabis facilities planned for Durham, with even more opportunities expected when cannabis edibles are legalized.
“There are some very interesting opportunities to move autoworkers into other fields, she said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a statement released on Monday that he will authorize Employment Ontario to deploy its Rapid Re-Employment and Training Services program “to provide impacted local workers with targeted local training and jobs services to help them regain employment as quickly as possible.”
It’s too early to say what kinds of local services that will translate to in Durham — in the face of past automotive layoffs, local “action centres” have offered a critical path to retraining.
The drop-in centres offer moral support, referrals to community agencies such as food banks and debt counselling, as well as access to job postings, resume help and assistance applying to retraining programs.
In 2012, McMaster University and the Canadian Auto Workers released the results of a multiyear study that tracked the experiences of autoworkers laid off from plants in Kitchener, Scarborough and Brampton between 2007 and 2009.
It found that those who reported high use of action centres were the most likely to have a positive adjustment to the impact of job loss.
GM will no longer produce vehicles at Oshawa plant beyond 2019.