Ford talks to Stellantis and urges a solution to bring the Windsor plant back to full capacity

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Prime Minister Doug Ford reaffirmed his commitment to Ontario’s auto industry on Tuesday, telling Stellantis officials that the government “is focused on making the investments necessary to ensure Ontario remains a leader in automobile manufacturing, including electric vehicles and battery technology “.

Ford and Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli spoke with Mark Stewart, Chief Operating Officer of FCA-North America, and Dave Buckingham, CEO of FCA Canada, about the company’s plan to eliminate another shift at the assembly plant. from Windsor next April.

The prime minister expressed disappointment with the decision, which will cost 1,800 direct jobs and probably hundreds more at feeder plants, his office said in a statement Tuesday night.

Stellantis reiterated that the decision, announced last Friday, is the result of a global shortage of semiconductor chips and other economic pressures from the pandemic.

Ford encouraged the company to work with Unifor, which is preparing a business case for an alternative solution, “to ensure that everything possible is being done to bring the plant back to full capacity.”

Stellantis, Windsor’s largest private sector employer with 4,500 employees, already eliminated the third shift from the minivan plant in 2020.

But the company has confirmed that it still plans to invest $ 1.5 billion to modernize the plant to produce hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles by 2024. That will add 2,000 jobs and the plant will return to three shifts.

The provincial and federal governments are making a “huge” investment in that plan, Ford said Monday during a visit to Windsor. The two levels of government will invest “in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

He also ordered a battery manufacturing plant here.

“I’m going to be pushing Stellantis very, very hard to twin his operations,” he said Monday.

Ontario’s auto industry employs tens of thousands of people.

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Reference-windsorstar.com

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