Roughly 110 Lakeside Plastics employees temporarily laid off due to GM strike

More than 100 employees at Lakeside Plastics in Oldcastle, Ont. are out of work Monday as a result of a United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against General Motors that has lasted for more than two weeks.

"At this moment, I think we have 120 employees working at Lakeside Plastics," said Emile Nabbout, president of Unifor Local 195. "One hundred and ten of them [have] been given notification that they are laid off effective today."

Employees will have to wait one week before collecting employment insurance benefits, Nabbout said.

Nabbout previously told CBC News the strike could affect some auto parts plants in Windsor-Essex.

According to Nabbout, Central Stamping and Gates Rubber in Windsor — two plants also represented by Local 195 — have yet to lay off workers.

"[At] Central Stamping, we're going to have about 10 part-time employees impacted, however the facility didn't give notification," he said. 

He added that AGS Automotive Systems has managed to keep workers employed by carrying out upgrades on the company's Windsor plant. 

Approximately 49,000 UAW members launched the strike against GM on Sept. 15. Contract issues are said to include stagnant wages, idle automotive plants and a hesitance by workers to pay a larger portion of healthcare costs as per GM's wishes.

The going strike has affected GM operations in the United States and Canada. 

Nearly 700 employees at the GM propulsion plant in St. Catharines, Ont. were handed temporary layoff notices last Friday as a result of the strike. 

GM also slowed production at its Oshawa Assembly Plant, leaving approximately 2,000 hourly employees out of work.