Navistar International Corp., which received more than $60-million from the federal and Ontario governments earlier this decade to help keep open its heavy-truck plant in Chatham, Ont., laid off all the employees at the plant yesterday and warned that the operation needs to be “smaller and radically different.”
The warning from plant manager Craig Holmes came after the Canadian Auto Workers union rejected a contract offer calling for a large reduction in the size of the plant’s unionized work force and cuts to wages and benefits.