The head of the local Canadian Auto Workers union in Oshawa said he felt like he was "kicked in the gut" after hearing news that nearly 1,000 jobs would be cut from the city's General Motors car plant.

Chris Buckley, president of CAW Local 222, made it clear he believes the government is not doing enough to help the ailing manufacturing sector during a news conference Tuesday morning.

"This is absolutely devastating news to about 900 to 1,000 of our members who will lose their job," he said.

"I want to challenge the government to get off their asses and start to give some attention to the declining auto industry and manufacturing sector," he added.

On Monday, GM announced plans to cut one shift at one of their Oshawa facilities plus three other plants in the U.S. The cuts will affect production on their full-size pick-up trucks and SUVs.

It is the second time in the last year that shifts have been cut in Oshawa

"With rising fuel prices, a softening economy and a downward trend on current and future market demand for full-size trucks, a significant adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities," Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, said in a news release issued on Monday.

The plant will start producing hybrids in the fall but Buckley said the federal government needs to step in if Canada's auto industry has any hope of being saved.

"It's absolutely terrible that our government allows this to happen," he said

Buckley said Canada's trade policy has caused the auto industry to lose the lucrative North American market share.

"Other countries are allowed to saturate our market with their vehicles and we're not allowed to enter theirs," he said. "The government has to do something or we will continue to bleed good paying auto jobs and good paying manufacturing jobs in this country."

Far-reaching impact

Buzz Hargrove, the CAW's national president, said the cuts at the Oshawa plant will have impact communities across the province.

"It's going to be devastating," he told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday. "People are leaving good paying jobs and going out into a community where there's very little work to start with.

"The parts industry and the service industry are going to be impacted," he continued. "For every job in an assembly plant like this, there's seven more in the overall economy so you're talking about thousands of jobs that are going to disappear because of this shift reduction."

Oshawa Mayor John Gray said there's reason for concern.

"It's not only the assembly jobs that are lost, it's also the suppliers," he told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

"We have to be very concerned," he said. "GM brings a lot of prosperity to Oshawa and with that prosperity, workers have great wages and their families can recreate. There's a real lifestyle impact."

Shift reductions will take effect in Oshawa on September 8 while the three American facilities will see the cuts in July.

Buckley challenged federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and local MP Colin Carrie to come talk to union members who are about to lose their jobs.

Hargrove said the union is about to enter into contract negotiations with GM and that they will certainly bring up the matter at the bargaining table.

"We are going to try as a union to convince GM to keep a shift on until at least over the New Year," he said. "We will be talking to GM next week and we're going to raise this proposition with them and see how they respond."

Buckley said he supports Hargrove's intentions but said he's not sure the decision can be reversed.

"We can do what we can to soften the blow but there are no guarantees we can get through this,' he said.

McGuinty urges feds to invest

Premier Dalton McGuinty responded to the news of cuts at GM by promising not to make cuts in services such as health care or public education.

"These are challenging times and there are many circumstances beyond our control which is resulting in real hardship and job losses for our families," McGuinty told reporters Tuesday morning.

"I think the first thing we need to do in times of economic challenges is do no harm," he continued. "We're not going to cut public services that families have got to be able to count on."

He urged the federal government to invest in an auto sector aid fund, similar to the one that the provincial Liberals set up after they first took power.

However, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the Liberals made a huge mistake when they dished out money to GM without making them promise to keep Ontario jobs.

Meanwhile, Hargrove said there are some simple measures Ottawa can put in place to give the auto industry a healthy boost.

"We could do something about our high dollar (by lowering interest rates)," he said. "And surely as Canadians -- we're one of the largest oil producing nations in the world -- why do we have to pay these high prices for gasoline that other oil-producing countries provide their citizens with a better rate for purchase?"

While the CAW is laying the blame squarely on the government, one industry analyst said Canada is simply too expensive for car manufacturers.

"The CAW has essentially sealed themselves to a relatively negative fate in that Canada now is the most expensive spot anywhere in the entire world for GM, Ford and Chrysler to manufacture vehicles and that's not a good position to be in," said Dennis Desrosiers, head of Desrosiers Automotive Consultants.

He warned the autoworker industry that if they do not make business more competitive, they are at risk of losing more jobs to the U.S. and Mexico.

The faltering economy will only make manufacturers take a closer look at their operating costs and at their labour agreements, Desrosiers said.

With reports from CTV Toronto correspondents, Naomi Parness and Paul Bliss