CAW Looking To Add New Product At Ford's Windsor Engine Plant
Conventional wisdom would have it that the CAW is looking to ensure the future of Ford’s Oakville plant. The Flex and Edge are built at the facility, and there has been a heated debate over whether the government of Ontario should invest money into the plant to help secure new product. But according to the CAW, the number one priority for them is a few hundred miles down the road.
The CAW’s Gary Beck told the Windsor Star
“Windsor is the No. 1 priority in our discussions right now,” said Beck, president of CAW Local 707. “We want to make sure all those people on layoff get back to work.”
Of the nearly 1,000 laid off Ford workers in Ontario, 600 of those were from the Windsor plant, and the CAW not only wants to get jobs back for them, but they are hoping to secure some new product, to ensure that the plant is safe from closing. Unfortunately, a revival of the 351 Windsor doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
More by Derek Kreindler
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Wikipedia says the plant still makes 4.9L and 5.8L V8s as crate motors, which they also condition as marine engines. Which is cool, but tells me that the plant is old. I'm not sure Ford's going to want to invest lots so that the new Windsor can be a thrifty turbo four.
So is that only the government wants/or is able to invest money in the CAW? That says a lot.
The CAW wil do poorly in these negotiations as they have in the past, they deserve what ever they get. This organisation reresents itself as one of the most important parts of the Canadian manufactoring sector. Yet in their entire existence they have never elected a union president with a high school diploma, in fact grade 10is good enough for the CAW, if you send a grade 9 dropout to negotiate with some of the biggest compnanies in the world you can safely expect to be out manouvered. I can guarentee that Ford,GM and Chrysler have people with considerably more education than high school representing their interests. Only about a third of the CAW even works in the auto industry, a large percentage are fish gutters etc.
Though, naturally, their way of encouraging Ford to invest in their plant is to threaten to strike everyone. Winning strategy!