Production workers at the Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing plant in Guelph have been told that they won’t be returning to work until at least January.
A total of 129 workers received their temporary layoff notices last week.
“It’s not looking great, but we’re going to adapt to the situation,” said Jerry Escott, who chairs the unit of Unifor Local 1917 which represents the workers.
Escott says layoffs aren’t anything new at the plant, with affected workers typically recalled back within a year or two after the industry bounces back – but never before has the entire production staff been told not to come in.
Bruce Murray, the company’s chief operating officer, says the company plans to bring back “at least some” of the workers in January, and hopes new business can be found so everyone can return to work.
Murray says the layoffs stem from the mining firms that make up Hitachi’s customer base cutting back on the purchase of new equipment.
“The big mining companies have basically frozen their capital plans … and as a result, they’re not buying any trucks at all,” he said in an interview.
“We delayed layoffs for some considerable time, hoping that the market would come back.”
Between unemployment cheques and supplementary pay from the company, Escott estimates that the laid-off workers will end up receiving 95 per cent of their normal pay through December.
“Hopefully they’ll look at it as a little holiday over the Christmas season,” he said.
Talk of a potential plant closure has been spreading around the factory lately. Escott said he’s heard those sorts of rumours since he started at Hitachi – and both he and Murray say there’s no truth to them.
“We don’t see this plant closing at all,” Murray said.
