A fire at a Michigan magnesium plant is having more impact on Windsor.
Ford has halted production of the F-150 at its Kansas City, Missouri, plant already and is expected to shut down the Dearborn, Michigan, plant this week.
It's having a direct impact on the Essex Engine Plant in east Windsor that supplies the V-8 engines to those factories.
Unifor Local 200 workers at the facility are on temporary layoff tomorrow and Friday as a result.
Unifor Local 200 President John D'Agnolo (Photo by AM800's Peter Langille)
Local 200 President John D'Agnolo says it's only the two days so far.
"Right now, the company is looking at how they're going to adjust the inventory for the following week," says D'Agnolo. "What Meridian says they're going to do as far as the tooling, they’re trying to get it to their other facilities."
D'Agnolo says there are 700 people on the line at the Essex plant, but not all may be laid off, saying "we have side departments that build the blocks the cranks, the rods and they haven't decided if they're going to be staying at work, they haven't given me the number of the impact it will have."
D'Agnolo makes it clear; the timing of the Ford plant restart is dependent on how quickly Meridian can restart its production.
One of Meridian's facilities is in Strathroy, but it's not known if that's where the tooling will go.
— with files from AM800's Kathie McMann