Unifor plans to meet with FCA execs about Windsor plant's future

Unifor is pushing for a meeting with top Fiat Chrysler executives in Michigan in an attempt to save 1,500 jobs and to get a new product inside the assembly plant in Windsor.

Dave Cassidy, president of Unifor Local 444, said he spoke with Fiat Chrysler officials on Friday, but no meeting has been scheduled yet.

He wants to meet with CEO Michael Manley and COO Mark Stewart.

Cassidy said he'll make the case to ramp up production at the city's largest employer, just days after the automaker announced plans to cut the third shift.

"It's a flexible facility. Is there tooling that needs to be changed? Absolutely, there needs to be tooling," said Cassidy. "But they didn't spend $2 billion in that facility to not look at its longevity."

Last week, FCA said it will lay off around 1,500 people to better align production with demand. On Sept. 30, the third shift will be eliminated. And eventually, FCA plans to discontinue the Dodge Grand Caravan.

"At that time, we will evaluate how we may want to consider addressing that portion of the segment," LouAnn Gosselin, head of communications for FCA Canada, told CBC News.

She wouldn't say when the company plans to stop making the Caravan. She also wouldn't confirm if a meeting between Unifor and some executives is in the works or if officials are considering adding a new product to the Windsor Assembly Plant.

"We do not comment on future production plans," said Gosselin in an email.

A lot of planning would need to go into adding another product into the Chrysler plant, according to St. Clair College mechanical engineering professor Scott Smillie.

He agrees with Unifor that retooling would be the biggest task, but he believes there may be some limitations.

"That just depends on the difference in the vehicle itself, right? I don't think you'd be able to do a say a pickup truck and a small, little two-seater car, kind of thing, in the same platform," said Smillie.

As a millwright by trade with more than 30 years experience, Smillie has worked in feeder plants, helped build production lines and worked in tool and die shops.

Nowadays, he said everything is operated by barcodes and computers, which helps sequence the assembly line.

"You wouldn't be able to just run one vehicle on the weekend," Smillie said. "It doesn't make sense."

Depending on vehicle sales, he said one assembly line can hold multiple vehicles at the same time. You may see three of one type, followed by something different, being pumped out of the facility.

Unifor knows FCA is always planning at least five years down the road. 

The union said it wants something new coming down the line, restoring work for the third-shift employees who will be out of a job in six months.

"We're ready, willing and able to receive whatever they bring us," said Cassidy.