'Brutal way to do business' says Unifor president on Stellantis assembly plant cuts
CBC
Unifor's national president Jerry Dias says there was no consultation whatsoever with the union prior to Stellantis's announcement Friday that it would be cutting the Windsor Assembly Plant down to one shift and he is vowing to get answers from the company this week.
"That's a brutal way to do business," Dias told the CBC. "You'd think that well in advance of this type of announcement, there would have been some consultation, some discussion... to see if there was a mechanism to avoid this — but nothing."
Late Friday afternoon, Stellantis announced that in response to "significant headwinds such as the persisting semiconductor shortage and the extended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," it would be transitioning the Windsor Assembly Plant to a one-shift operation by spring of 2022, a change that would see 1,800 employees lose their jobs permanently.
Last year, Dias celebrated the collective agreement the union reached with the company which included a $1.5-billion dollar investment in the Windsor Assembly Plant that would see the inclusion of electric vehicles at the Windsor plant along with the return of the third shift, which was cut in early 2020.
Dias said this news came as a surprise.
"[It was] absolute radio silence until you get the call at the last minute saying 'here's what we're announcing,'" he said.
Dias said that the union is reaching out to Stellantis to set up meetings to see how to deal with the announcement.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.