Almost 1,000 workers for General Motors of Canada will be laid off in September because of falling demand, the company announced.

The layoff means an entire shift will disappear at the GM truck assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, east of Toronto, the Toronto Star reported.

It affects about 900 hourly workers and 70 salaried employees, the company said.

GM said demand for full-size pickup trucks was falling, gas prices are soaring and economic conditions are deteriorating.

The Oshawa truck plant had been running full-bore since 1993 on a three-shift schedule and annual production used to be 300,000 trucks, the report said.

The newspaper said the reduction will also ripple through the area's auto parts sector and eliminate hundreds of other jobs because of reduced demand. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International