GM's job cuts
General Motors announced a drastic manufacturing capacity reduction, reducing 26,000 U.S. jobs and 3,900 Canadian jobs with the automaker. Bad as these cuts are for beleaguered American auto industry workers - since each GM manufacturing job essentially translates into 6 to 7 jobs for other auto-industry-dependent employment, including parts suppliers, vendors, and also the ripple effect of GM employees' consumer spending in their local communities - it's proportionately worse for Canada and for Ontario in particular. The per-hour compensation for Canadian workers doesn't require paying bloated amounts for private-sector health care benefits. Worse for Canadians: In March 2005, the Government of Canada contributed $200 million of taxpayer funds towards the GM Canada's $2.5 billion Beacon Project Among the Beacon Project's goals: The project includes an investment in state-of-the-art equipment for an all-new Oshawa Car Assembly Plant paint facility, which will p...