1d ago

Employers begin layoffs as Canada-U.S. trade war intensifies

Here's a selection from the article:

In Delta, B.C., furniture company Prepac Manufacturing Ltd. abruptly announced plans last month to shut down one of its factories and terminate 170 employees. ... The company was acquired by Toronto private equity firm TorQuest in 2019, and opened a new manufacturing and warehousing facility in North Carolina in 2021. Prepac plans to centralize its operations in North Carolina, leaving no Canadian footprint. Prepac was founded in Vancouver in 1979.

...

at South Shore Furniture, a Quebec furniture maker. In early February, the company said it was cutting 115 jobs because of tariff threats, noting that 70 per cent of its products were sold in the U.S. and American purchasers have sought out merchandise from Asia because of the trade war.

...

Another steel manufacturer in eastern Ontario – the Canada Metal Processing Group – said on Feb. 24 that it was cutting 140 employees because of the “actions by the United States” that will result in cancellations or delayed orders.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-layoffs-take-hold-as-trade-war-intensifies/

22 comments

This is a false narrative.
They were already planning to do that regardless of the election of the orange dumpster fire.
- Absolutely, the private equity assholes were already going to do this. Just a convenient excuse for them
- Yup. Steel/Aluminum plants are likely more related but just like when many places raise prices suddenly the "latest news article" is just a convenient excuse rather than a real reason behind it
- Fucking cunts deserve to be in jail.
- Do you have evidence of that?
  
  Layoffs don't happen this quickly. It takes more time to identify the right folks to lay off and act on that information.
  
  The North Carolina plant was set up in 2021. Also this came across my Reddit RSS feed two days ago and there were comments in the post from workers.

Fuck TorQuest.
Fuck private equity firms.
Fuck vulture capitalism.
- New rule (hopefully Carney enacts) ... no private equity firm is allowed to have a controlling interest in a Canadian company. Period.
  
  I'm not sure that fits with his central banker background, so I won't find my breath. I'd love to be wrong though.
- And fuck power levels!
  But yeah, if the big bidness boys pwaying big bidness games are going to take their ball and go home, we should start taking things back in return. IP rights. Trademarks.
  Tax breaks.
  If they want to be 'Murican, let them go be 'Murican. We don't need 'em 'round these parts.

Soooo, there's a furniture factory for sale and 170 willing staff?
- Occupy, resist, produce!

Sounds like they were already shuttering their Canadian operations before this.

This sucks and is it the specific reason why some of the business-oriented interests have been pushing for the trade war.
There’s no way to avoid this; it’s just going to be a painful and sizeable adjustment period.
But as we restructure our economy away from relying on America, we will build new jobs and businesses.
They need our minerals, water, trees, and our energy. We don’t need them for anything. So it will suck in the short term but it will get better. It’s the start of something new, and that’s scary and uncertain but let’s do it.
- We have relied on America for one important thing, and that is defense. We allowed them to pressure us to abandon the Avro Arrow, and that essentially shut down any and every chance we had to take care of ourselves.
  We've also ceded all choice in military spending to what America wants us to buy.
  We have been lazy, and worried more about not offending America than doing what's best for us. If nothing else the current situation has started to wake us up to that fact.
  
  We have been lazy, and worried more about not offending America than doing what's best for us. If nothing else the current situation has started to wake us up to that fact.
  I don’t feel like you were accusing me specifically, but the shoe fits.
  Subconsciously I think I thought we were safe in Canada. Too white, too much cultural and shared history. Sure we knew we had to separate ourselves but we could do that tomorrow and we had other problems today.
  And like you said it’s been a wake-up. For me certainly.
- This all feels very bizarre and scary. What if we do cut them off? You wrote it yourself:
  they need our minerals, water, trees, and our energy. We don’t need them for anything.
  What will happen when they are choked? After all, they are a superpower with a military that can run us over. I know there's talk about NATO and article 5. But, are we sure our allies want to go toe to toe with a superpower? Is Canada worth it for them?
  There is great uneasiness in me about all of this because it just seems like negotiations are there to just string us along until they decide enough is enough.
  
  The time to wonder how they’d respond has passed. They already have responded; they are working to destroy us.
  I don’t know what they’ll do. They’ve lost every time they’ve tried to occupy a country and they will have the same experience here. But that hasn’t stopped them from repeatedly trying.
  It would bring ruination upon both countries but we cannot control them. I hope they realize that before they try.
  And at the risk of being a jerk — you should feel scared. I’m scared. It’s scary stuff! But I can find some comfort in standing up what’s right for our people.

22 comments