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Stellantis has warned Unifor Local 444 its workers wonât be paid if the Windsor Assembly Plant is forced to shut down due to the ongoing blockade at its delivery gate erected as a result of a labour dispute.
Lou Ann Gosselin, head of communications for Stellantis Canada â the new company that launched Saturday with the merger of French automaker PSA and Italian-American automaker FCA â confirmed the blockade remained in place Monday as production resumed. The plant has limited space to park the new minivans rolling off the line.
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Canadian autoworkers blockade minivan plant
By Martha Grevatt posted on January 13, 2021
Members of Unifor Local 444, at FCA’s Windsor, Ontario, minivan assembly plant, blockade gates to oppose threats to cut members’ jobs.
Since Jan. 5, Unifor Local 444 has blockaded the FCA minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Plant workers normally build 830 Chrysler Pacifica vans per day. The blockade of entry and exit gates will prevent minivans from being driven off the assembly line, when production resumes Jan. 11 after the temporary idling around the holidays.
At issue is FCA’s contract with a third party whose workers drive the assembled vehicles off the line. When its contract with Auto Warehouse Company expired, FCA did not renew it, instead giving the work to another company, Motipark.
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The blockade at the delivery gate of FCA’s Windsor Assembly Plant has been removed after the company and Unifor Local 444 reached a temporary agreement late Sunday.
FCA Canada accepted the Unifor proposal to bring back 40 Auto Warehouse Company workers, who are Local 444 members, on an interim basis.
“We never wanted to impede production,” said Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy.
“This also gives us time to figure it out with the OLRB (Ontario Labour Relations Board) on the issue of employment successor rights.”
Cassidy said Monday Unifor would file the required paperwork with the OLRB that day.
The blockade had been in place since Jan. 5 as part of a labour dispute between Local 444 and Motipark, which recently won the contract to take over the work of driving new minivans off the production line.
Author of the article: Dave Waddell • Windsor Star
Publishing date: Jan 08, 2021 • January 8, 2021 • 4 minute read • A judge has denied FCA Canada s request for an immediate injunction on picketing outside the Windsor Assembly Plant. Shown Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, Unifor Local 444 members blockade the plant at the Walker Road shipping yard. Photo by Nick Brancaccio /Windsor Star
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A Windsor judge has temporarily denied FCA Canada’s bid to get a court injunction ordering Unifor Local 444 to remove a barricade at the Windsor Assembly Plant.
The company argued Friday that the labour dispute threatens local vehicle production beyond Monday, but Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Howard ruled that FCA Canada hadn’t met several of the jurisdictional requirements to proceed with its motion for an injunction.