Help for laid off assembly plant workers
A new centre to help laid off Windsor Assembly Plant workers find jobs opened Friday with the help of more than $210,000 from the Ontario government.
“Jobs and prosperity are returning to your community in 2024,” Monte Mcnaughton, minister of labour, training and skills development, said at the announcement Friday, referring to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' plan to invest up to $1.5-billion to make plug-in hybrid or battery-powered electric vehicles at the plant.
“But,” he said, “we know that workers and their families need support today.”
Three other partners — FCA, Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at the plant, and ZF TRW Automotive Holdings
I have promised our laid-off workers that they would not be forgotten about or left behind.
DAVE CAS SI DY, Local 444 president
Corp. — also contributed a total of almost $230,000. Mcnaughton, who toured the centre Friday, called it a “great team effort.”
The centre at Unifor's hall on Turner Road offers a wide range of services and supports, including resume writing, job searches and referrals to community resources, to help workers laid off when the third shift was eliminated last summer.
The union has implemented health-and-safety measures that allow the centre to remain open during the pandemic. It will be open until November 2021.
“I have promised our laid-off workers that they would not be forgotten about or left behind,” Local 444 president Dave Cassidy said.
About 1,500 jobs were lost when the third shift was eliminated. About 700 workers accepted buyouts.
Referring to FCA'S planned investment in the plant, reached during contract negotiations with Unifor last fall, Mcnaughton thanked the union for “driving the agenda forward to get automotive manufacturing investment back here in the province.”
“This is a turnaround for Ontario's automotive industry,” he said in an interview.
As part of the new, threeyear contract, Unifor secured a deal for FCA to invest between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion to build electric vehicles at the plant beginning in 2024. All 425 workers laid off from the third shift are expected to have the opportunity to be recalled, plus another 1,500 are expected to be hired.
The federal and provincial governments are expected to contribute to the retooling of the plant.
Mcnaughton wouldn't say anything about Ontario's contribution. He said only that “we're certainly working with our labour partners and automotive manufacturers to ensure they know they have a partner in the Ontario government.”
Cassidy said he has met with Premier Doug Ford and Finance Minister Rod Phillips on the government's potential contribution to the investment.
“As I learned early in my professional hockey reffing career, you're only as good as your last call,” he joked.
“So I'm really hoping and I'm looking forward that moving from today we're going to have another announcement regarding our battery electric vehicles.”
The federal and provincial governments are each contributing $295 million to Ford's plan to upgrade its assembly plant in Oakville to produce electric vehicles.