Layoff notices issued for 625 workers at CAMI

A little more than a month after they learned their jobs were on the line, over 600 workers at the CAMI automotive plant in Ingersoll have received their official layoff notices.

The missives went out this week with a layoff date in early July, but Unifor officials say the affected workers will likely stay on beyond that.

“Right now they’re just following the law and they have to give 16 weeks notice, so the date says July 3, but we’re pretty confident they will work beyond July 3,” said Mike Van Boekel, CAW chairperson of Unifor Local 88.

A total of 625 letters went out this week.

Van Boekel says the union hopes GM will have something else planned for CAMI in the coming months.

“Right now we’re seeing the vehicles moving to Mexico and I guess that’s the end of that vehicle, but we’ll have a very, very large weld shop that will be empty starting in August and hopefully they’ll be looking for us for the next project,” said Van Boekel.

“That’s the name of the game. We’ve got a very good plan, a great workforce, we should be competitive enough hopefully, and we can move on.”

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The union says they’re also still working with GM to put together early retirement packages to try to mitigate the actual number of layoffs.

News of the layoffs came six weeks after it was announced the production of the GMC Terrain would shift to Mexico. In early January, union officials said layoffs at the plant weren’t expected due to the strong success of the Chevy Equinox.