PACCAR workers protest outside Quebec premier’s office after hundreds laid off

PACCAR workers protested outside of Quebec Premier Francois Legault's office after the company laid off hundreds of workers.

Dozens of PACCAR workers protested outside Premier François Legault’s Montreal office Tuesday, denouncing recent layoffs at the Saint-Thérèse, Que. truck plant and calling on the Quebec government to do more to protect local jobs amid U.S. tariffs.

Three hundred employees were laid off last week, marking the third round of cuts this year.

Francis Belanger, a PACCAR employee, said it was a sad situation and that morale at work was low.

The union, Unifor, says the layoffs are a direct result of U.S. tariffs. The company will move much of its production south of the border and will only operate one plant for trucks that will be sold in Canada.

Unifor’s Quebec director, Daniel Cloutier, said that represents a significant drop in production.

“The fixed costs of operating such a place with 18 trucks a day, how long could it be like that? So, we’re afraid for the future,” Cloutier said.

The union is calling on the Quebec government to change the public procurement process to prioritize buying local.

“They still buy trucks from the U.S. today. Hydro-Quebec still gets their trucks from Illinois. How come it hasn’t already stopped?”

Cloutier added that the federal government should do the same, as well as place tariffs on American trucks.

He said cuts in manufacturing have a trickle-down effect, affecting jobs for suppliers as well.

“So basically, it’s more than a thousand jobs that we have lost in a zip, in the Montreal region. This is a catastrophe,” Cloutier said.