Friday marks the official end of the third shift at the FCA Windsor assembly plant.
The shift has been on the chopping block for more than a year with several dates extended, but it comes to a close this week.
The automaker offered 1,300 buyout packages and, according to Unifor, about 700 employees took the offer but the number of workers that will be laid off is still unknown.
Bob Dennison took the package and says many felt it was time to move on.
"With the COVID shutdown, I think a lot of people started realizing that there's life outside of Chrysler and that I can spend more time with my family, grandkids, whatever," says Dennison. "I think a lot of people crunched the numbers and decided, yeah, this is a good deal."
He believes more people took the package because of the pandemic.
"I feel really sorry for the people who have to work right now with the masks and all that stuff, but I think just having that extra time off to make that decision, I think that probably pushed a lot of people out the door," he says.
Dennison says many employees opted to be bought out to avoid others being laid off.
"You work side-by-side with a lot of these 20-something kids that are working there now and you hear the stories that they've bought new houses, they've bought new cars and they've just had kids and all that stuff," says Dennison. "To think of them out on the street, your heart breaks for them."
The buyout package included $50,000 and a $20,000 vehicle voucher.
Aside from FCA workers, hundreds of feeder plant employees will be affected by the change as well, but it's not yet known how many will lose their jobs.
Unifor Local 444 represents the minivan plant and four feeder plants in Windsor-Essex.