OSHAWA -- The General Motors truck plant, already scheduled to be eliminated in 2009, may be closed for an additional seven weeks in 2008 because of slipping truck sales.

General Motors announced the production cutbacks Monday. Assembly will be halted at other GM truck plant locations throughout North America as well.

A two-week summer shutdown was already scheduled to begin at the end of this week in Oshawa prior to the announcement.

Chris Buckley, president of CAW local 222, said Monday another week will be added to the scheduled shutdown -- the week of July 14 -- and the union expects there will be an additional seven weeks of layoffs before the end of the year.

“It’s directly related to softening sales,” Mr. Buckley said. “The truck market is sliding down a slippery slope very quickly.”

Mr. Buckley said he is nervous this move could be an indication GM may permanently close the plant earlier than late 2009, which is the current plan. He said the union is still working hard to protect jobs for the 2,600 workers that will be affected by the closing.

After 25 years of working in the auto industry, Mr. Buckley said this is the worst he’s seen it.

“It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” he said.

Workers can rest assured their benefits and severance packages won’t be affected, said CAW national president Buzz Hargrove.

“This is happening because the market for trucks in the U.S. and Canada is dropping like a bag of bricks,” he said. “But workers will still get their employment insurance (EI) and company supplementary unemployment benefits (SUB).”

But Mr. Buckley said it may be difficult for employees to collect EI and SUB because they may not know far enough in advance which weeks they will be laid off so they can apply for the benefits.

Mr. Buckley said employment insurance and SUB pay out about 65 per cent of an employee’s regular wage.

The announcement came four days after GM told the union it would produce the prototype for the hybrid truck out of the Oshawa plant until its planned closing in 2009, Mr. Buckley said.