THUNDER BAY – A parts shortage at the local Bombardier plant will keep 25 workers off the job this week.
Unifor Local 1075 president Dominic Pasqualino, who represents 950 Bombardier employees in Thunder Bay, on Thursday confirmed the short-term, temporary layoffs but said those workers will be back next week.
“They’re following the collective agreement. It’s unfortunate but when you have this many people with this many parts sometimes this happens,” Pasqualino said.
“They’re all laid off at the same time. They’re at a couple of work stations. They have the opportunity to get paid throughout this time they’re off. What they can do is make up the time in overtime or they can deduct one day’s pay per pay period so it doesn’t hurt them that bad financially. We’ve made provisions for it.”
Issues with parts – particularly ones sent from the company’s plant in Mexico – are not new for local workers.
Pasqualino said the current shortage is a mix of parts not arriving on schedule or being improper but added since Bombardier has started having the Thunder Bay plant and another facility in Quebec produce parts the issues have largely been resolved.
“It’s a complicated car. There are a lot of parts in there,” Pasqualino said, adding parts are supplied not only from the company’s plant in Mexico but are also coming from Europe and all over the world. “All of these have to come in on time. They have to be of a particular quality.”
Pasqualino said he is concerned about future work at the plant, with both of their current contracts – streetcars for the Toronto Transit Commission and bi-level cars for the GO trains operated by Metrolinx – scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.
Both the TTC and Metrolinx have been critical of Bombardier for delivery delays, with the TTC pursuing legal actions against the company and openly considering barring Bombardier from future work as well as Metrolinx restructuring a separate agreement with the company.
Pasqualino acknowledged the negative attention hasn’t helped the company’s reputation but stands behind the cars that get rolled out of the plant. Production has ramped up significantly on the streetcars, he added.
“Obviously it doesn’t help,” Pasqualino said. “The product itself is very good and the public loves them. Last year at this time we were only producing one car per month, which is below everybody’s expectations. Now they’re producing four cars per month and we’re hoping to improve on that and increase that speed.”
Pasqualino is hopeful the company can secure extensions, particularly with the TTC for the Rocket subway cars which were finished in February 2017. He also believes it’s possible the plant could get further streetcar work.
“We dramatically improved them already. We would like to speed that up even more,” Pasqualino said. “Once we get that going it would be a shame to stop that and not deliver more cars.”
