Employees at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be out of work for at least another week.
Production was set to resume May 10 and Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy is not happy with the company's last minute announcement the closure will be extended.
The plant has been shuttered since March 29 due to a worldwide shortage of microchips.
Cassidy says not knowing when they'll go back has been tough on his members.
"They're very frustrated. People have lives they need to plan around too. They make their arrangements for whatever they've got, child care, etc. and then boom, all of a sudden we get the call and they're notified that we're off next week. It's just a three ring circus right now as far as I'm concerned and they need to get on the ball here," he says.
Cassidy says outsourcing work overseas was never a good idea.
"I'm telling you right now that we need to get back to work. We need to continue to work. Hopefully it opens some eyes from upper levels of government about procurement, about building in Canada. We're on the hook again because of microchips," he says.
Cassidy says this reinforces the need to build in Canada.
"Everybody knows it's just not a Windsor issue. It's a global issue, but what does this mean? Can we not build it here? We don't have the technology to build it here? We don't have the expertise to build it here? Somebody has got to open their eyes and see what this is actually doing to the industry, to the manufacturing industry," he adds.
According to Stellantis, production will resume the week of May 17.
In a written statement, the company says it, "continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry."
With files from Rob Hindi