As GM Oshawa layoffs begin, workers leave the plant and enter an uncertain job market

GM Oshawa workers talk on layoffs after reposition gets skip

At 6:30 a.m. On fri, autoworkers at GM’s Oshawa plant began clocking out for the last time and walked out into the frigid cold. 

They were among the first workers to be laid off as GM cuts one of three shifts. Up to 1,200 autoworkers across the supply chain are expected to lose their jobs. 

“A lot of people have some sort of resentment, but you've just got to go on, move on,” said Kendrick Gordon, speaking outside the plant on his last day working for a subcontractor. 

Stephen Hyde also lost his job on Friday morning.  For three years, he’s worked for TFT, a company that supplies parts to GM. Before that, he worked at GM for 34 years. 

He said he’s left with an “empty feeling in the pit of my stomach” after losing his job. 

Hyde, 66, says he is considering moving to Alberta to find work, as he has family in Edmonton. 

“The unknown is really bad, because there’s not a lot of jobs in Ontario,” he said. “Jobs are disappearing quickly.” 

Hyde said he wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to make “some type of deal” with President Donald Trump as U.S. Tariffs continue to punish Canadian industrial sectors. 

“Right now, Ontario is not looking very good at all,” Hyde said. 

Meanwhile, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly called the GM layoffs “completely unacceptable” speaking in Montreal on Friday. 

“If GM doesn’t want to continue to invest more in Canada, we will invest in other players,” she said. 

“We’ll fight for these workers and we’ll find them jobs,” she said. 

Joly said she met with GM on Thursday and “told them that we would be getting our money back.” 

In 2022, the federal and Ontario governments announced they would be investing up to $259 million each in GM’s Oshawa plant and its CAMI facility in Ingersoll. 

But in October, GM announced it was closing the Ingersoll plant, which produced electric-powered BrightDrop delivery vans, due to low customer demand. Most of the 1,200 workers at the plant have been indefinitely laid off. 

“We want justice for Canadian taxpayers, who have no time for those who don’t believe in us,” Joly said on Friday. 

In Oshawa, auto workers who are laid off will face the city’s 8.6 per cent unemployment rate, which is above the provincial and national average. 

GM Canada to lay off hundreds of workers at Oshawa plant

He says there’s an added layer of conflict to the job hunt, since he will be competing against his former colleagues to try to find employment. 

Forbes says he is also considering moving away to find employment, but the cost of relocating has been a barrier. Without a secure job offer, he says he’s unwilling to move and take on the expenses that come with that. 

Since the job market is so competitive, employers typically don't see the need to provide incentives, such as covering relocation costs, said Rob Elkington, assistant professor of business at Trent University. 

Job hunting can be particularly difficult for people over 55, he said, who may face unique challenges such as a lower likelihood of employers offering them sponsored training. 

“Many training systems are not designed for the learning needs of older workers … and even some of the pension and retirement income rules inadvertently penalize continued workforce participation,” he said. 

While some autoworkers are looking outside Ontario for a job, Elkington said there are sectors in Durham Region that may be able to provide employment. 

He pointed to the development of a new mini nuclear power plant in Bowmanville, which is projected to bring 18,000 construction jobs to the region and sustain 3,700 energy jobs annually over 65 years.

Tech and manufacturing sectors have also been growing in Durham Region, Elkington said. 

Policymakers need to think about how autoworkers can “leverage their skills in meaningful ways in those new sectors,” he said. 

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