BRACING FOR IMPACT
A worker leaves the Windsor Assembly Plant at shift change on Friday, a day after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs by eliminating the plant’s third shift on June 29. Experts say the economic impact will be widespread.
The economic pain from the elimination of the third shift at FCA’S Windsor Assembly Plant will spread beyond Essex County through southern Ontario and into the U.S., say automotive experts and others.
Though it won’t lessen the hardships for those losing their jobs at the end of June, auto analyst Dennis Desrosiers said direct jobs in the area aren’t as exposed to the decision’s impact as other areas.
“Two-thirds of the direct jobs affected won’t be in Windsor,” said Desrosiers, founder of Desrosiers Automotive Consultants.
“For the one-third that are here, it’s very devastating. It’s a blow, but not a death blow for the community.
“The indirect jobs are where the pain is really going to hit home in Windsor. Those 1,500 workers were well paid and would go shopping every week with money to spend.”
Canadian Association of Mold Makers president Mike Bilton said the local plants that will be most impacted are Tier 1 suppliers, who supply parts directly to the Windsor Assembly Plant and mimic FCA’S shift schedule.
“The immediate impact will be for the volume suppliers, not so much for my membership,” Bilton said.
“There are only a handful of FCA suppliers here in Windsor. It’s a minimal hit (to the Tier II local supply chain), but it’s a hit.”
Among the local plants directly supplying the plant are Magna Integram, Quality Safety Systems, STM and HBPO.
“It’s not just the 1,500 workers in the minivan plant losing their jobs,” said Unifor Local 200 president John D’agnolo, who represents STM workers that make headliners for the Pacifica.
“STM will definitely lose their third shift and possibly more than that. We don’t know for sure yet.”
On Unifor Local 444’s Facebook page, workers at plants affected by FCA’S announcement greeted Thursday’s news with a mix of anger, fear, anxiety and resignation.
Many are trying calculate where they are on the company’s seniority list.
“180 below me,” FCA employee Mark Merkestyn wrote on Facebook, estimating his position on the plant’s seniority list.
“We need a miracle. Maybe 2 miracles.”
Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy’s posting Friday was a scattergun shot of anger.
“This is devastating news to our WAP membership, our feeder plants and our entire region!” wrote Cassidy, who was unavailable for comment.
“At this moment I am angry! I am angry at the lack of an auto policy in this country. I am mad at people who make a good living in this community because of our jobs, yet they don’t buy what we build. I am mad that the company did not already have a new product in our plant.
“I am ANGRY, but I know this anger will not help the situation we are in.”
There was much discussion about government officials failing to come up with a national auto strategy to compete for new plants and investment.
“Bottom line 1 mile from here, massive investment is happening at Ford Chrysler and GM,” FCA worker Greg Moore wrote of the billions being invested in new plants in the Detroit area. “Exactly the opposite is happening here.
“This has everything to do with government policy, regulation and taxation. They could have given us any new product they wanted, especially at a 35% dollar advantage and taxpayer sponsored health care. It must be pretty unattractive to pass this up.”
The area’s four NDP representatives at the federal and provincial government levels joined in the lambasting of current and previous governments for a lack of a cohesive auto strategy.
“Every time the Liberals rise in the House of Commons on auto job losses or plant closures, they say the same thing, that they ‘stand with our workers,’ ” Windsor-west MP Brian Masse said.
“They hired an auto czar who recommended a robust and forward-thinking automotive policy. They have the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council, who also recommended immediate action, and years have passed without any action.
“This is not standing with our workers.”
Despite the understandable frustration, Desrosiers and other area auto industry leaders aren’t writing the Windsor Assembly Plant’s obituary just yet.
“It’s my belief the minivan segment won’t get resurrected,” Desrosiers said. “It won’t entirely disappear either. It’ll stay about the size it is.
“The question is: What’s next?” Desrosiers said the chances are better than 50-50 the plant gets a new product.
“That plant is one of Chrysler’s best and one of its best workforces,” Desrosiers said. “It deserves a new product.”
However, Desrosiers said a second product is unlikely in the short term given the market corrections going on in the industry.
“I’d say one, probably two years if the plant is to get a new product,” Desrosiers said.
Automate Canada chair Shelley Fellows also cautions against doom-and-gloom scenarios for Windsor.
Fellows said there’s no similarity between what played out in Oshawa, where GM closed its production plants in December, and FCA’S auto assembly operation in Windsor.
“I don’t believe this is the beginning of the slippery slope for closing the plant — it’s an adjustment,” Fellows said.
“They just invested a lot of money ($2 billion) in the plant and I know they have some very advance technology in there. GM didn’t invest in the plant, technology or new product in Oshawa.
“FCA values the product (minivan).”
Fellows added the supply chain in the area is also much better positioned to weather the coming storm.
Many companies have worked hard at diversifying their customer base since the 2008 economic downturn.
Fellows, who is also a vice-president with AIS Technologies Group, said diversification within the auto industry also helps spread risk exposure.
“We are into aerospace, food, pharmaceuticals, energy — even wastewater,” Fellows said.
“Within the auto industry we work with many OEMS. We work directly with Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai. Indirectly through our customers, we supply FCA, Tesla and Nissan.”
Windsor-essex Regional Chamber of Commerce president Rakesh Naidu said he fielded plenty of phone calls and emails from his membership on Friday.
“There’s no doubt our membership will feel real pain,” Naidu said.
“Many small businesses depended on those FCA workers. There’s a real anxiety about what the future impact of this will be.
“However, our membership’s first priority is helping the workers and their families deal with the fallout of the third shift being eliminated.”
Bilton and Fellows said a key difference from previous large-scale layoffs is there’s an opportunity for workers to quickly pivot into new careers in the sector.
They point to the micro-credential program being launched at St. Clair College as one example of taking an autoworkers’ transferable skills and adding to them to fill the many specialized jobs in the automotive supply sector currently sitting empty.
“There’ll be spinoff opportunities out of this,” Bilton said.
“We need to be looking to the future. We need to help these workers quickly because there are positive opportunities out there.”
The impact of Thursday’s announcement goes beyond just the manufacturing and business sectors.
Andy Bothamley, the United Way’s vice-president of finance and operations, said the loss of 1,500 jobs will impact fundraising and likely increase demand for services from many of the agencies the organization supports.
“FCA is the biggest single source of our fundraising,” said Bothamley, adding his agency started planning for this scenario last year. “It’s too early to gauge the full impact.
“When you think of the many issues in the community — food security, housing, children’s mental health — when a parent loses a job and is affected there’s going to be an impact on children as well.”
For the one-third (of direct jobs) that are here, it’s very devastating. It’s a blow, but not a death blow for the community.