The President of Unifor Local 195 says a shutdown at the Windsor Assembly Plant will impact local feeder plants across Windsor-Essex.
John Toth says his local represents about 1,000 workers that will be affected by a planned shutdown at the minivan plant.
"There are so many other plants in Windsor that are feeding that particular assembly plant, that they're put out of work as well," he says. "And, in most cases, those people don't have access to the same type of benefits as those that work in the assembly plant."
Toth says workers at Syncreon Automotive and Flex-N-Gate Lakeshore will be the most impacted.
He says 90 to 95%of the work done at those plants is for the Windsor Assembly Plant.
"One of the bigger numbers we have is folks over at Syncreon, who also happen to be in negotiations at the same time," says Toth. "Their job is entirely feeding the Windsor Assembly Plant with parts."
Unifor Local 195 President John Toth addresses Motor City Chrysler strike rally, Thursday, February 8, 2018 (by AM800's Peter Langille)
Fait Chrysler plans to idle the assembly plant the weeks of April 8 and the 15 to "align production with demand," according to a statement from FCA Canada. It's the third shutdown of 2019.
Canadian sales of the Chrysler Pacifica were down 61% in February compared to February of 2018, were just 235 of the minivans sold during the month. January sales were down 47% compared to the same time a year ago.
Toth says workers at the feeder plants are still trying to catch up from the last shutdowns.
"So we had the Christmas shut down, we had some shut downs after that but people are still trying to get back to what normalcy was," he says. "We're starting to finally see some steadiness and then we get some other work weeks that are thrown into in the mix, so everybody is looking for some stability."
Unifor Local 444 also represents a number of feeder plants that provide parts for the Windsor Assembly Plant.
The assembly plant makes the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. The shutdown impacts roughly 6,000 employees at the minivan plant which, when running at full volume, produces nearly 1,500 vehicles per day.
FCA is also halting operations at the Brampton Assembly Plant the weeks of April 1 and 8.