Archives for September 24, 2019

General Motors has temporarily laid off about 730 hourly workers at its parts plant in St. Catharines, Ont. as the strike by the United Auto Workers in the U.S. enters its second week.

The company confirmed Monday that it shut down engine production because of supply chain disruptions from the strike.

“We did not bring up the engine production this morning because we sort of built out what we can there,” said David Paterson, vice-president of corporate affairs at GM Canada.

He said the St. Catharines plant is still producing transmissions for the company’s CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ont., which is still fully operational producing the Chevrolet Equinox compact SUV.

“We still have approximately half of our hourly workforce on the job, between CAMI and what we have going at St. Catharines transmissions and Oshawa stamping, which is pretty good given the integrated nature of the industry.”

GM’s operations have been disrupted by the strike by close to 50,000 UAW U.S. members, who have shut down production at more than 30 of the company’s manufacturing sites across nine states.

The company also shut down vehicle production at its Oshawa Assembly Plant Friday because of supply chain issues from the strike, leaving another roughly 2,000 hourly workers temporarily laid off.

The Ontario plant closures have led to a wave of temporary layoffs at companies dependent on them, including about 1,700 unionized workers centred around Oshawa operations and another 200 from the St. Catharines plant.

The U.S. labour action, the first national strike by the UAW since 2007, is over issues including wages, health care, and job security.

Bargainers met all weekend and returned to talks Monday morning as the strike entered its eighth day, with progress reported in negotiations but no clear end in sight.

Transat Inc. could face fallout from the collapse of Thomas Cook Group Plc after a partnership between the companies died Monday.

The tour operator, which runs Air Transat, was in the second year of a seven-year deal to exchange aircraft with the British company’s airline on a seasonal basis.

The Montreal-based Transat was slated to receive at least seven jetliners from Thomas Cook this fall, but “the partnership is dead because the company no longer exists,” spokesman Christophe Hennebelle said.

He said Transat, which is working to complete its takeover by Air Canada next year, is “confident” the Airbus A321 planes will still come through, but is making contingency plans.

“We’re not waiting until the last minute. We’re working to receive the planes, and at the same time we’re thinking of other plans to make sure that the schedule will be respected,” Hennebelle told The Canadian Press.

Hundreds of thousands of travellers were stranded across the world Monday after Thomas Cook collapsed, halting almost all its flights and hotel services and laying off all its employees as the company ceased trading.

The liquidation of the 178-year-old travel company, which helped create the package tour industry, will have sweeping effects across the European and North African tourism industry and elsewhere, as hotels worried about being paid and confirmed bookings for high-season winter resorts were suddenly in doubt.

Nasim Lalji, who lives in Brampton, Ont., was scheduled to take a Thomas Cook flight from London to Turkey next week with her husband until the flight was cancelled Monday.

The couple, who paid about $307 each for the trip, said they were promised a full reimbursement and were in the process of rebooking with another airline Monday.

“But that is going to cost us way more than what our initial price was,” Lalji said in a phone interview.

Flights from London to Turkey’s Dalaman Airport costing less than $500 early Monday morning rose to nearly $600 a few hours later, she said.

“Every minute you delay booking your flight, the prices go up…because everybody is now trying to find other options,” Lalji said. “It is a major inconvenience.”

Global Affairs Canada said Canadian citizens in need of consular assistance should contact its emergency watch and response centre in Ottawa.

“To date, we have no reports of any Canadian citizens being affected by the collapse of the British tour operator Thomas Cook,” the department said in an email.

Thomas Cook said four of its five airlines will be grounded, and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries — including 9,000 in the U.K. — will lose their jobs.

Overall, about 600,000 people were travelling with the company as of Sunday, though it was unclear how many of them would be left stranded, as some travel subsidiaries were in talks with local authorities to continue operating.

The company, whose airlines, resort and hotels served 19 million people a year in 16 countries, had a limited presence in Canada.

Condor Flugdienst, Thomas Cook’s main German carrier, is the only one that flies to Canada, with seasonal flights from Frankfurt to Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Whitehorse. While all flights took off as planned Monday, Condor has requested financial aid from the German government in a bid to keep the subsidiary afloat, it said in a release.

Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:

Economic data

Statistics Canada will release wholesale trade figures for July on Monday. The release comes after disappointing manufacturing and retail sales figures for the first month of the third quarter.

DHX earnings

DHX Media hosts its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2019 conference call on Monday. The Toronto-based producer and distributor of child and youth-oriented programming recently named Eric Ellenbogen, a former president and chief executive of Marvel Enterprises, as its new chief executive.

Tech conference

The Elevate tech conference kicks off on Monday in Toronto, featuring a variety of speakers including Michelle Obama, Chris Hadfield, and Martha Stewart.

Latest from BlackBerry

BlackBerry will hold a conference call for its second quarter on Tuesday. BlackBerry shares took a deep dive in late June as concern about a competitor seemed to overshadow first-quarter financial results that were ahead of analyst estimates on several key measures.

Investor conference

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will be hosting its annual Eastern Institutional Investor Conference in Montreal on Wednesday, where executives from more than 65 companies will be speaking, beginning with CIBC chief executive Victor Dodig.

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 1.7 per cent to $65.4 billion in July, boosted by gains in the personal and household goods subsector and the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories group.

Economists on average had expected no change for the month, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

The personal and household goods subsector rose 4.7 per cent to $9.7 billion in July after falling 0.3 per cent in June.

Meanwhile, sales in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories subsector climbed 4.0 per cent to $11.4 billion.

Sales in the machinery, equipment and supplies group fell 1.1 per cent to $13.7 billion.

In volume terms, wholesale sales increased 1.9 per cent in July.