720 jobs slashed at Ont. truck plant
A truck plant in the southwestern Ontario city of St. Thomas is the latest company in the auto sector to cut hundreds of jobs as the industry falters due to an economic slowdown.
Sterling Truck Corp. has announced 720 jobs will be slashed, on top of nearly 600 previous layoffs.
Media reports state the workers will receive official layoff notices Thursday and be out of work by November.
Local union chair Dave MacArthur blamed economic slowdown south of the border as hurting demand for trucks.
The latest layoffs will have a ripple effect on St. Thomas that could see thousands more handed the pink slip in the region's parts and services sector, said Bob Hammersley, chief executive of the St. Thomas Chamber of Commerce.
"It is so severe, it is depressing," Hammersley told the London Free Press.
Ontario's automotive industry has seen thousands of jobs slashed due to rising fuel prices and the troubled U.S. economy.
The city was also hit in mid-June with 400 jobs cut at a Magna International Inc. plant that makes frames for General Motors pickups.
With files from the Canadian Press
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