Jerry Dias expects to meet FCA next week about Windsor's third shift
About 1,500 jobs are set to be lost as of Sept. 30 this year once the third shift is gone
Unifor's national president Jerry Dias is meeting top executives at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to find out what can be done to save the third shift at Windsor Assembly Plant.
This meeting will be the first since the auto maker announced it will be ending the third shift as of Sept. 30, 2019.
About 1,500 jobs will be lost.
"It's all about what's the short term, what's the long-term," said Dias. "We obviously need another product to complement the existing portfolio."
A spokespeson with Unifor said they expect to meet sometime next week.
On Monday, workers will also be returning to work for the first time since the layoff announcement. The plant had been shut down for the past two weeks.
Automotive expert Dennis Desrosiers said there are a combination of things that can happen to protect the third shift.
One of them is putting a new product into the plant, but he said it will take some work and effort for the FCA to figure it out.
"The plant's a great plant," said Desrosiers. "There should be an avenue for [FCA] to give [the workers] a little bit more job security."
Corrections
- A previous version of the story said Unifor and FCA are meeting on Monday. However, a Unifor spokesperson later said the meeting won't be on Monday, but is expected to take place sometime next week. The story has been updated to reflect this change.Apr 12, 2019 5:53 PM ET