Windsor Engine plant to boost plastic face shield production

Ford Motor Company announced Thursday it will significantly boost production of the plastic face shields the company has been building at its Windsor Engine plant.

“The plant is working to assemble more than 2.75 million face shields for distribution across Canada to help protect medical personnel and first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a news release from Ford stated.

Currently, there are 28 employees working on making the shields. The company and union worked to create a work space with plenty of physical distancing in the sprawling and largely empty facility.

Production of shields began April 6, and to date Ford has produced just over 250,000 shields. Thousands of those shields were first distributed locally.

Unifor Local 200 president John D’agnolo said it’s unclear whether the company will recall more workers for the project or if the company will expand the area required to meet the increased volume of production.

“We’re still waiting to have that discussion,” said D’agnolo, noting the impending restart of Ford’s North American operations May 19 has dominated conversations.

The commitment to producing another 2.5 million shields will result in months of work.

“That’ll secure some work I’d think until September,” D’agnolo said. “Hopefully by then we won’t need to be building them anymore because they’ve found a cure.”

Ford employs 1,600 people in Windsor at its two engine plants and another 6,400 people across the country.

D’agnolo said producing face shields locally is just one aspect of Ford’s wide-ranging efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They’re building face masks, respirators, ventilators and a variety of medical equipment at other plants,” D’agnolo said.