A United States-based truck manufacturer is laying off 300 workers at its plant in Sainte-Thérèse, Que., just days before
U.S. tariffs
on heavy-duty trucks take effect.
In October, U.S. President Donald Trump
signed an executive orde
r that places 25 per cent tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks beginning Nov. 1.
Unifor, which represents workers at the Paccar Inc. plant in Quebec,
issued a call for urgent action
and reiterated its calls for a national industrial strategy that prioritizes support for domestic manufacturing plants.
It said Paccar has already done two rounds of layoffs at the plant, in December 2024 and this past July.
The plant is now down to around 500 workers from more than 1,000 workers, according to Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier. (Full disclosure: the Financial Post is also organized under Unifor).
That means instead of producing 96 trucks per day, the plant will only be able to produce 18. Its fixed costs will be spread over fewer products, which will hurt the efficiency of the plant, he said.
Cloutier said the drop will also affect many local parts supplier companies that relied on the plant for business.
“It will have a ripple effect,” he said. “It’s nonsense that we cannot put in our laws to always ‘Buy Canadian.”
Unifor national president Lana Payne said Trump’s looming tariffs are a “brutal blow” to an already struggling company.
“This is yet another example of why Canada needs a real national industrial strategy, one that includes made-in-Canada procurement to protect our jobs, our communities and our future,” she
said in a release
.
Payne called on the Quebec government “to issue a clear directive” that requires its agencies to purchase trucks built in Quebec.
The calls for action tie into a growing trend in which manufacturing workers, from the steel to the auto sectors, are pushing government agencies to craft policies that require procurement from domestic plants whenever possible.
In September,
Prime Minister Mark Carney
announced a “Buy Canadian” strategy and other provincial leaders have made similar commitments, but results have been mixed.
In October, steelworkers in Windsor, Ont., staged a protest on the side of a highway when they discovered a provincial overpass is using foreign-made steel beams.
Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier called the Paccar layoffs a wake-up call.
“The Quebec government has direct leverage through public purchasing,” he said. “It must lead by example and press all levels of government in Canada to do the same.”
A spokesperson for Paccar was not available by the time of publication.
• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com
Quebec layoffs at U.S. truck plant days before tariff spur calls for urgent action
2025-10-23 14:50:13
