May 14, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Melissa Mancini

DURHAM -- It's everywhere.

"It" is the effect on the community when 2,600 jobs disappear.

"It" means fewer people are bringing home their regular income each week, even if they've taken a good buy-out package and will receive a lump sum of cash or a percentage of their wage.

"It" will cause people to have to give up luxuries and even necessities to make ends meet. Houses will be sold, car leases broken.

In June 2008, General Motors announced it would be closing its Oshawa truck plant. What followed was a year of turmoil: a 12-day blockade of GM headquarters on Colonel Sam Drive by Canadian Auto Workers members, negotiations for hefty buy-outs and early retirement deals and a sigh of relief by some when the packages were announced.

The number of local General Motors' workers who have opted to retire or take advantage of the grow-into-retirement plan was 2,621, exceeding the number of jobs expected to be lost by the truck plant closing.

So the workers may have some cash to keep them afloat while they search for a new career or wait for their pensions to kick-in.

But the jobs are gone forever.

And the effect of that is only beginning to be seen.

THE BUSINESSES

It hasn't been an easy year for GM. The truck plant announcement was just one of many bad-news stories the company had to contend with throughout 2008-09. U.S. sales plummeted and eventually Canadian sales dropped off too. Sky-rocketing gas prices meant few people were buying the big cars GM was famous for.

Once called "too big to fail", the auto giant faltered in ways many could never have imagined just a few years ago: shedding brands, nameplates and employees, including bigwigs like former CEO Rick Wagoner. Begging governments for loans to stay afloat. Asking unions for more and more concessions.

And now the "B" word is tossed around like it is inevitable: bankruptcy.

Parts manufacturers have also been hammered by the slowing of production lines at assemblers including GM. Ceva Logistics, TDS Automotive Logistics and AG Simpson all had to lay off significant numbers of employees.

Lear Corporation laid off more than 700 employees in Whitby and Ajax in the past few years.

Auto glass manufacturer Pittsburgh Glass Works and vehicle seat assembler Johnson Controls both had to close up local plants.

THE NEIGHBOURS

You know things are bad when cigarette sales are down.

Roni Patel owns Stop and Shop Convenience, located on Wentworth Street in Oshawa, about half a kilometre from GM. She said even her best sellers, such as lottery tickets and tobacco products, have slowed lately. Regular customers come in less often. Even those addicted to smoking are cutting back to buy essentials, she said.

"A lot of people that live in the area rely on GM," Ms. Patel said.

It's not just the lunch rush that has slowed at the Square Boy Pizza and Mr. Sub restaurants on Wentworth Street West, owner Azim Nazarali said.

Business is the worst he's ever seen it, even though he's owned the franchises located two blocks from the truck plant for "years and years," he said.

Despite offering specials like $5 footlong subs, he can't get the old GM crowd back in.

"It's very hard to survive," he said.

Park Place Restaurant is across the street from the Oshawa GM plants. It was always a busy local hang-out but now the bar and eatery doesn't see the rush after shift change like it used to. It's the "uncertainty factor" that's the problem, owner Mike Peovski said.

People are watching what they spend because they aren't sure about the future of their jobs, he said.

THE EMPLOYEES

Tammy Schoep is a 30-year-old mother of three who is a victim of circumstances beyond her control.

She said she worked hard at her job as a GM line worker to give her daughters Mykayla, 14, Kirsten, 11 and Franky, nine, a nice home.

She was working the midnight shift at the car plant until it was cancelled. Then truck plant workers with higher seniority started bumping workers out of the car plant.

"If one or the other (alone) had happened I would have had a job," she said.

"But now..." her voice trails off as she talks about her unemployment.

She's been laid off for more than four months and is starting to wonder what to do next. Ms. Schoep said she might have to give up her house and car and declare bankruptcy because the cash is starting to run dry and employment insurance won't cover everything.

"I bought a house that I could afford if I was laid off for a short time," she said. "My mortgage is $300 a week no matter what."

Laura Downey worked at Automodular until she got the bad news: she would be one of the first to lose her job in round one of layoffs in early 2008. She is still on the callback list, but said she probably won't hear the phone ringing her back to work anytime soon.

But Ms. Downey found the silver lining in the cloud of layoffs: retraining.

The government and her former employer, along with two other companies, funded the Workers4Workers Action Centre in Whitby, where people laid off from Lear Whitby, Automodular and another non-automotive company can seek help finding work or applying for government-funded training money.

She is about to graduate from a medical office assistant program. Even after all she's accomplished, she's worried about finding work in her field in a tough job market.

Now Ms. Downey is a peer helper at the centre, assisting her colleagues in finding their paths post-pink slip. The last round of job losses at Automodular coincides with the truck plant closing on May 14. The action centre is preparing to help the newest of the unemployed, the group with the highest seniority at the company.

"This is going to be very scary for them because they have been there the longest," Ms. Downey said.