Blockade returns to FCA's Windsor Assembly Plant over unresolved sub-contracting dispute

Union members are once again blockading a gate at FCA's Windsor Assembly Plant after workers were told to leave Friday morning since the company awarded a new contract to other workers. 

This is the second time in two weeks that Unifor Local 444 members have blockaded a Windsor Assembly Plant entrance. The union is taking action as it wants FCA to rehire workers from the Auto Warehousing Company (AWC), which is a group that Unifor represents.

But the contract for the service was taken over by Motipark, a subsidiary of the Essex Terminal Railway Company, on Jan. 1 after a bidding process last year, putting the Unifor members out of work.

The union had filed an application under the Ontario Labour Relations Act.

FCA had agreed to let AWC workers return to work temporarily until the dispute was settled at the labour board. 

But on Friday, FCA sent workers home. 

In an emailed statement to CBC News, FCA Canada head of communications LouAnn Gosselin said that the union has been "disrupting" the plant's operations since the contract was awarded to a new company. 

"This labour dispute should be resolved off FCA premises.  As this is currently not the case, FCA will pursue all options to protect our production at Windsor," she said. 

Gosselin added that FCA was notified by AWC management that Thursday would be its last day and that AWC "confirmed that they did not instruct their employees to report to work [Friday] morning." 

Unifor Local 444's secretary treasurer James Stewart told CBC News Friday that they will continue with the blockade "until we get it resolved." 

He said they aren't stopping FCA from getting vehicles that were already processed, but they are not allowing any third party people to pass. 

"[We're] not letting anyone come in and do that work without an agreement with us," Stewart said. 

On Monday, Unifor Local 444 had posted to its Facebook page saying it had had a "breakthrough" in the dispute and removed its first blockade that it had erected on Jan. 4. At the time, President of Local 444 Dave Cassidy was claiming a "partial victory" with workers returning to work.