COVID-19 brings city’s auto plants to a halt
Workers were being turned away from the Windsor Assembly Plant Wednesday afternoon as the Detroit Three automakers announced they’ll temporarily idle factories across North America in the face of concerns over COVID-19.
“Working with Unifor and listening to the concerns of our people, we have agreed to cease production at our plants across North America, starting progressively from today through the end of March,” FCA said in a statement Wednesday.
Ford and General Motors both said their operations would be closed until March 30.
Unifor national president Jerry Dias said the decision came as no surprise with the events of recent days.
“It was a matter of time for the industry in North America to go down,” Dias said. “Things are changing so rapidly.
“People are uncomfortable and nervous in the plants and legitimately so. We can’t say we’ve hit the top of the curve on this. Every day it’s worse.
“There’s an incredible amount of unknowns.”
Dias said the shutdown would affect one-million Ontario jobs. There are 40,000 direct jobs in the industry, 75,000-80,000 in the automotive-parts sector, plus the spinoff jobs.
“There’s a multiplier of nine or 10 to one from auto jobs in Ontario,” Dias said.
“This is going to have a huge impact on Ontario’s and Canada’s economy.”
In its statement, FCA added: “While production is paused, the Company will put actions into place to facilitate the steps agreed to through the joint task-force set up between Unifor and the automakers. Through this period, which we will re-evaluate at the end of this month, FCA will work to enhance its manufacturing operations to facilitate the changes agreed with the UAW, including shift timings, structures and enhanced cleaning protocols.”
Honda also announced Wednesday it was halting North American production for six days, beginning March 23. Toyota will halt production Monday and Tuesday to deep clean its plants.
Both Japanese automakers have major production complexes in Ontario.
Unifor Local 200 president John D’agnolo said Thursday’s afternoon shift would be the last for Ford workers. General Motors is also gradually winding down its operations this week.
“Once they decided to close U.S. operations, we knew it would impact us right away,” D’agnolo said.
“They’ll look at inventory, sales and see where things are to see if we’ll come back (on March 30).
While we’re down, the company is going to really clean the facility.
“They’re looking at making it as safe as possible for workers.”
D’agnolo said Unifor members in Ford, GM and FCA plants will have the protection of supplemental benefits, but so many workers in the automotive supply chain aren’t as fortunate.
“It’s going to be devastating for our community,” D’agnolo said. “Those getting just EI, how are people going to pay the rent, buy groceries? They can’t afford a reduced cheque, let alone miss one.”
For Windsor Assembly Plant workers, the rapidly evolving events caught them off guard. FCA workers showed up for their afternoon shifts perplexed at being turned away.
“We got out of the car and just went up and they were just kind of doing the ‘go away’ motion and just nobody’s coming into work,” said Linda, a WAP worker who preferred not to give her surname.
“I mean it’s all over Facebook that people were getting turned away but I hadn’t heard from the company. I haven’t heard from my supervisor or management so I came to work.”
It was only Tuesday that Unifor and United Auto Workers officials had worked out new protocols with the Detroit companies aimed at keeping workers safe and plants open. Those plans were scrapped by early afternoon Wednesday as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths increased.
Linda said Windsor workers did not expect production to stop after the UAW reached an agreement with the Detroit Three to keep the plants open Tuesday night
“Not really, until I heard earlier that the States were closing,” said Linda of expecting Windsor Assembly to close.
“Then it’s just assumed the
States is closing, so it’s going to shut us down at some point. But I was not expecting this today.”
What concerns everyone is what will be the state of the public’s finances after the rough ride ahead.
“I think it’s going to take some time for people to catch up,” D’agnolo said.
“If you’re trying to catch up on paying bills, you’re not going shopping for a new car. This is going to have a lasting effect.”
With files from Lindsay Charlton