Cuts effective Jan. 30; trade war with US blamed
General Motors Canada (GM) is pressing ahead with plans to eliminate the midnight shift at its Oshawa Assembly plant at the end of January, a decision that will erase hundreds of unionized manufacturing jobs amid a volatile trade environment.
Starting Jan. 30, 2026, the facility is expected to move from a three‑shift to a two‑shift operation, ending round‑the‑clock production of Chevrolet Silverado pickups in Oshawa. Unifor Local 222, the union representing workers at the plant, said 700 hourly workers at the plant will be laid off, plus 300 people who work for supplier companies, CP24 reported.
In its own statement on its website, the union said more than 1,000 jobs at the plant and in the supply chain “are being wiped out.”
The cut comes less than a year after the company first warned it would scale back truck production in Oshawa, citing US tariffs and an “evolving trade environment” as factors in its shift planning and export strategy. Truck volume will be reallocated to GM’s Fort Wayne, Ind., plant as the automaker adjusts its North American footprint in response to trade‑related costs and demand forecasts for full‑size pickups, reported CBC News.
Union hall packed on eve of layoffs
The looming end of the third shift triggered a packed information meeting at Unifor Local 222’s union hall in Oshawa on Jan. 28, where members were briefed on timelines, bumping procedures, and supports as they brace for job losses.
The union framed the decision squarely in the context of cross‑border trade tensions, noting that autoworkers “are in the middle of a deepening trade war, feeling the full force of tariffs every day.”
The Oshawa cut follows months of public and behind‑the‑scenes lobbying by Unifor, which had earlier succeeded in pushing GM to delay the third‑shift shutdown. In a 2025 update, the union confirmed the company had postponed the reduction until at least Jan. 30, 2026, after initially targeting late summer 2025, buying workers several additional months of employment before the latest confirmation that the shift will now end.
Tariffs and trade policy drive restructuring
The third‑shift elimination in Oshawa is part of a broader restructuring in Canada’s auto sector as manufacturers recalibrate production around US trade policy and tariff exposure.
Unifor has repeatedly linked GM’s Oshawa plans to the 25 per cent tariffs imposed by the United States on Canadian‑built vehicles, warning that the combination of trade friction and shifting investment priorities is accelerating the movement of work to US plants.
GM has emphasized that it’s rebalancing capacity rather than abandoning Oshawa altogether, pointing to ongoing truck production and investments in future models.
Unifor Local 222 president Jeff Gray said that there were plans to create programming to retrain laid-off auto workers in Oshawa and elsewhere in Ontario, CBC News reported.
