As auto sales continue to slump in response to the tighter credit market, General Motors announced plans to slash 1,100 jobs at its Oshawa truck plant in Ontario.

The vice president of GM Canada, David Paterson, in a statement about the decision said, "What we are doing basically, is planning to make sure that our production's disciplined and in line with where we see the market demand."

Paterson cited "a variety of different reasons" for the move including a consumer switch to smaller vehicles, the high price of gasoline, and the soft housing market in the United States.

Overall, there are five GM plants operating in North America and manufacturing pickups. Because the other two plants operate with two shifts and the Oshawa plant has three, the decision was made to cut back labor there.

At the news conference announcing the cuts, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, Buzz Hargrove said, "They shocked the living hell out of us, quite frankly. We had not anticipated any announcement of layoffs."

Previously GM cut overtime hours at the plant in an effort to control inventory but the move was not sufficient in the face of prevailing market factors.

Over the past two years GM has posted losses totaling approximately $12 billion. The company already announced the closing of twelve plants and the cutting of 34,000 jobs but the Oshawa cutbacks were not part of that prior announcement.