Andrea Horwath calls for automatic strategy at Windsor stop

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Provincial politicians have renewed their calls for an automotive strategy in the wake of news that the Windsor assembly plant will cut a second shift next year.

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Andrea Horwath, Ontario’s NDP and official leader of the opposition, was in Windsor on Thursday to reiterate his party’s provincial auto strategy.

“We know that these jobs create stable, middle-class families,” Horwath said. “My heart goes out to those workers and to this entire community.

“We will never stop fighting to keep those good jobs here and create the auto industry of the future. That is something we can and will do. “

His appearance follows an announcement last week by Stellantis officials, who said the second shift at the Windsor assembly plant will be cut in April 2022. The move could mean the loss of about 1,800 jobs.

Horwath reiterated his party’s commitment to introducing a green car strategy that he said focuses on protecting current jobs and helping employers transition to electric vehicles.

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“We haven’t waited,” Horwath said. “We have put together a plan ourselves that we know will bring us the prosperity that working middle class auto families need and deserve to provide safety for themselves and future generations, right here in Windsor.”

The NDP plan, dubbed the Green New Democratic Deal, addresses commitments on climate change, indigenous rights, and emissions targets.

Dealing specifically with the automotive sector, the plan includes a commitment that every new vehicle sold in Ontario by 2035 will be an electric vehicle.

It also offers incentives to help people transition to electric vehicles, money for charging infrastructure across the province, and research into financial incentives for Ontario automakers to reuse tools to produce zero-emission vehicles.

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“There is a lot of transformation and transition that needs to happen if we are to have the opportunity to keep these good jobs in our communities,” Horwath said.

“We need to be there with the companies, with the workers, with the strategy so that these jobs and these vehicles of the future are developed and manufactured here in our province.”

Horwath met with the leaders of Unifor Local 444 on Thursday afternoon.

Allison Kozolanka, a second-shift auto worker at the Windsor assembly plant, said the environment at the plant is “quiet” after last week’s announcement.

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“The mood is very, very sad,” Kozolanka said. “They really hope someone will adopt an electric vehicle policy that will secure our jobs for the future. We are very hopeful that the new product will arrive, but there are no guarantees. “

Horwath said an auto strategy has long been needed, singling out liberal and conservative governments and hinting at change before next year’s provincial elections.

“If we had a government devised an automotive strategy at any point in the last 18 years, we would not be facing this situation,” he said. “There is a political party in Ontario that has done that work and is willing to continue working with the union and employers to make sure it happens.

“The automotive strategy is solid and gives us the true opportunities that we should have to manufacture the cars of the future right here in our province ”.

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