The strike at automaker General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) is being felt north of the border in Canada.
Nearly 700 workers at the General Motors propulsion plant in St. Catharines, Ontario were handed temporary layoff notices late last Friday, a week after members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the U.S. began a work stoppage over issues such as pay and healthcare benefits.
Tim McKinnon, Chairperson for the Canadian union Unifor Local 199, said most of the workers at the St. Catharines plant will be off the job as of Monday. About 450 workers will continue working on the transmission line, but their future is also uncertain.
The St. Catharines workers join thousands of others in Ontario's auto industry who have been temporarily laid off after UAW members at GM's U.S. operations walked off the job for the first time in more than a decade on September 16.
GM has also halted production at its Oshawa Assembly Plant, leaving about 2,000 hourly employees off the job and creating a ripple effect among the suppliers who depend on it.
Unifor said laid-off workers in St. Catharines will be able to access unemployment insurance that’s equal to about 50% of their regular wages.
People who have been employed at the plant for six years or more qualify for supplementary pay that's equal to about 65% of their wages.
