Nemak workers protest company’s decision to close down aluminium casting facility in Windsor

Unionized workers of Windsor Nemak plant reportedly staged a protest on Monday, September 2, against the company’s decision to close the Windsor facility. The workers vowed to stay off the job until Nemak reverses its decision.

In mid-July 2019, Nemak had announced that it planned to close down its aluminium casting plant at Windsor by mid-2020, as a result of which 270 employees might lose their jobs. These employees are from Unifor Local 200, a local union of the general trade union Unifor.

Jerry Dias, Unifor National President, said, “Nemak is out of business until further notice. We will be here until we have a solution.”

Parent company Alfa said Nemak was closing its Windsor facility because it was too small and inefficient. Dias, on the other hand, said the closure was part of a plan to shift production to South, where wages are a fraction of those in Canada.

But according to the National Auto Parts Industry, the average salary of a Mexican who works in a manufacturing plant with a maximum of 700 employees is barely US$3.73 per hour.

Alfa General Director Alfaro Frenandez said falling demand of aluminium auto parts in China could also be a reason for the closure of the Windsor plant.

Also, Nemak had originally quoted the same reason for its decision to close the facility.  It had particularly said the expected withdrawal from an export program by a client in China would lead to a less than 10 per cent use of the plant’s installed capacity in near future.

Last week in Monterey, Unifor officials met with Nemak CEO Armando Tamez Martinez to discuss the matter but talks remained unproductive, Dias said.

The union said it was within its rights to take strike action because the company’s plan of closing the facility violated the terms of the collective agreement.

“Nemak cannot get away with betraying its workers or Canadians simply because they are motivated by corporate greed,” said Dias. “They can’t take millions in government handouts one day and then desert their loyal workforce and the community of Windsor the next.”