Preparations for the return of the third shift at the Windsor Assembly Plant are underway.
Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart told AM800's Mornings with Mike & Meg that hiring has begun for the third shift.
"We have contract language that affords anyone that's laid off at the Brampton Assembly Plant the first opportunity whenever one of the other plants goes into hire mode, so that process is ongoing," says Stewart. "The company has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,000 applicants on file from the first hiring they did, like, a year and a half ago."
He says there are some new hires in the plant already.
"They're going through interviews and coming into the plant for some training; in all, they're looking at 1,400 people to come into the plant," he says. "So we're going to keep an eye on it over the course of the next month or so and see what happens, but right now they're slating the third shift to start some time middle of February."
Stewart says the return of the third shift is "good news" for Windsor-Essex.
"The 1,400 people coming in are all new to either Windsor or the Windsor area coming into the assembly plant," says Stewart. 'They're all new jobs."
In September, the automaker announced the return of the third shift.
At that time Stellantis issued a statement saying, "In anticipation of increased demand for the products built at the Windsor Assembly Plant, including all versions of the Chrysler Pacifica and the new SIXPACK-powered Dodge Charger Scat Pack and R/T models, Stellantis confirms that it will be returning the plant to a three-shift operation in early 2026, honouring a commitment made during 2023 Unifor negotiations."
The third shift was eliminated in July 2020, resulting in approximately 1,500 job losses.