An Oshawa councillor has stated that there could be seven jobs at risk for every job lost at the GM plant in Oshawa from February 2.
GM yesterday announced that 500 direct layoffs will happen as a result of the earlier announced move from a three- to a two-shift system at the plant.
“I was at Regional Council yesterday (January 28)… what surprised me the most as a regional and City of Oshawa councillor, was that… speaking about the reasons to not vote for the increases, was that 700 jobs were going to be lost on January 30th at GM in Oshawa… there are approximately 7 spinoff jobs lost to every one job lost at General Motors,” Councillor John Neal told Durham Post.
He said he spoke about the “terrible” job loss twice before the vote on the increases. “No other regional councillor spoke of this job loss and its terrible effects on Oshawa and the region as a whole.
“Either the ones that voted for the 4.8 [per cent] property tax increase, as well as the [5 per cent] water and sewer rates increases, were not listening, or they just do not understand the suffering that is taking place at our residents and businesses in Oshawa, and throughout the region,” the councillor pointed out.