Wescast Industries, a Tier 1 car provider of exhaust manifolds, has knowledgeable Unifor of its purpose to similar its foundry in Wingham, Ont., the place it has operated for greater than 120 years, the union mentioned Would possibly 29.
Unifor mentioned the closure will destruction staff, households and the family of Wingham, about 190 kilometres northwest of Toronto. About 250 contributors of Unifor Native 4207 paintings on the facility.
“Wescast and its overseas owners are turning their backs on the foundry’s dedicated workforce and the community that has supported them for generations,” Unifor Nationwide President Lana Payne mentioned. “The Wingham foundry closure announcement must serve as a wake-up call to every level of government that Wingham auto parts workers urgently need support.”
The Wescast Industries foundry in Wingham has been working since 1902 and basically manufactures exhaust manifolds for automakers akin to Ford, Common Motors, and Volvo. Wescast used to be obtained by means of China’s Sichuan Bohong Co. Ltd. in 2013.
The corporate has now not supplied the union with a timeline for the deliberate closure. However Unifor maintains that in a foreign country sourcing of the castings violates program constancy promises within the collective word of honour and is the topic of a previous complaint filed by means of the union previous this pace.
Since Wescast used to be obtained by means of Bohong, the union mentioned it has many times expressed issues to control referring to “the company’s lack of investment in basic maintenance of the historic facility.”
The collective word of honour between Unifor Native 4207 and Wescast is about to run out this pace and the events are within the strategy of coming into negotiations. Unifor mentioned there lately is not any exchange to the timeline for bargaining.
“Wingham can’t afford to lose hundreds of good jobs and neither can the industry,” mentioned Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario regional director. “Maintaining these jobs and the footprint of our auto parts supply chain is crucial to maintaining the skilled workforce and industrial capacity needed for the transition to electric vehicle manufacturing.”
Car Information Canada has reached out to the corporate for remark.
Unifor has been urgent the federal and provincial governments to undertake a method designed to saving auto portions jobs because the trade shifts towards electrical automobiles.
The union has mentioned that hundreds of jobs are in peril as elements akin to exhaust methods and gasoline tanks aren’t required in EVs.