BACK TO THE BARRICADE?
FCA plant labour dispute reignites
FCA Canada asked 30 Auto Warehouse Company workers to leave the Windsor Assembly Plant Friday morning as the labour dispute that saw a six-day blockade last week reignite.
FCA notified AWC on Thursday it no longer required their employees as of midnight.
That prompted Unifor Local 444, which represents the nearly 60 workers impacted, to resurrect the blockade. The workers are responsible for driving finished minivans out of the plant and preparing the vehicles for shipping.
“We're blocking the workers from Motipark coming in to do our work,” Local 444 president Dave Cassidy said. “It's not happening.
“This is not coming down until we get a court order to tell us it's coming down.”
Cassidy said he learned of FCA'S change of tack from AWC workers. “I was shocked,” Cassidy said. “We lived up to our end and Chrysler, for their whatever reason, didn't live up to their end and I'm not sure why.”
Cassidy said the blockade would be manned around the clock.
In an emailed statement from FCA Canada, the company disputes Unifor's version of events.
“FCA was notified by AWC management that Thursday, Jan. 14, was its last day at Windsor Assembly Plant,” said FCA Canada's head of communications Lou Ann Gosselin. “AWC confirmed that they did not instruct their employees to report to work this morning.”
Gosselin didn't expand on the reasoning for AWC'S decision, but noted all parties understood it was an interim agreement.
She added FCA feels it's unfairly caught in a dispute between Unifor and Motipark, which was awarded the contract that AWC had been doing.
“Unifor has been disrupting our FCA Windsor Assembly Plant operations since the releasing activity for finished vehicles was awarded to a new unionized vendor, effective January 1,” Gosselin said.
“This labour dispute should be resolved off FCA premises. As this is currently not the case, FCA will pursue all options to protect our production at Windsor.”
Superior Court of Ontario officials confirmed Friday that FCA is seeking a date in front of Justice Paul Howard.
Howard is unavailable Monday and no court date had been set.
The blockade originally was put in place Jan. 5 as part of a labour dispute between Local 444 and Motipark, which won the FCA contract to take over from AWC.
Unifor is claiming employment successor rights while Motipark has shown no interest in hiring the 60 Local 444 workers who had been doing the work under the former AWC contract.
Cassidy said Motipark workers would start at $17.77 per hour under the new agreement compared to the average of $22 per hour under the Unifor deal with AWC.
FCA and Unifor reached a temporary agreement Sunday night ending the first blockade.
Unifor filed papers this week requesting a date before the Ontario Labour Relations Board on the successor rights issue.
Cassidy said Friday no date had been set yet.
The drama on Friday started around 1 a.m. when FCA management and Windsor Police Service officers showed up with the intention of having Motipark employees enter the plant.
However, the Unifor blockade prevented that.
Unifor said the 30 AWC workers reported for their shift at 7 a.m. only to be told they had to leave as they were trespassing.
“We told (FCA) they aren't going to have scabs come in here,” Cassidy said.
“The police asked if we'd go in and escort them out, so we went in and escorted them out.”
Cassidy said the auto haulers for Cassen and ATS, which is a division of FCA, will be allowed to transport all minivans that had been processed and lined up for shipping by the AWC workers.
Friday's production was being stored around Windsor Assembly's yard and the lots across from the plant on the east side. The Windsor Assembly Plant has enough space to hold one day's production (830 vehicles). No production is scheduled for this weekend.
Cassidy said Unifor has suggested FCA make the AWC workers part of its ATS division, which is also represented by Local 444.
“ATS have a separate collective agreement (than WAP workers),” he said.
“We'll negotiate a different contract (than AWC), no problem. It's win-win for everyone.”