Chrysler Pacifica plant faces blockade over driver dispute

Union members have set up a blockade near Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, because of a dispute over the people who drive the new minivans from the plant. FCA awarded a contract to a different company – Motipark – than had been doing the job before, effective Jan. 1. That has left the approximately 60 workers who had that work last year without jobs this month. Unifor Local 444, the union that set up the blockade, represents both the plant workers and the former drivers.

A dispute over the drivers who move newly built Chrysler Pacifica minivans away from the Windsor Assembly Plant could affect production there if it’s not resolved in the coming days.

Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, set up a blockade outside the plant earlier this week to keep vehicles from being moved out of a holding yard after the drivers who used to do that job found themselves out of work. Fiat Chrysler hired a different company for the driver jobs, but that company did not keep the Unifor members, as the union expected. Instead, the company, Motipark, said its workforce is represented by the Teamsters.

Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy told the Free Press on Thursday the drivers, who had been working for Auto Warehousing Co., need to be back on the job.

“I’m not letting 60 of our members go to the street without going to a job, especially when they’re hiring other people to do the work that they do,” Cassidy said.

Union members have set up a blockade near Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, because of a dispute over the people who drive the new minivans from the plant. FCA awarded a contract to a different company – Motipark – than had been doing the job before, effective Jan. 1. That has left the approximately 60 workers who had that work last year without jobs this month. Unifor Local 444, the union that set up the blockade, represents both the plant workers and the former drivers.

A series of photos supplied by the union showed people carrying red Unifor flags and standing near a gate by the plant at Vimy and Walker in Windsor. Cassidy said the coronavirus pandemic has forced him to limit the number of people actually at the blockade, but that he’s had requests from hundreds of union members who want to be there.

Cassidy said he’s received cease-and-desist letters from FCA and Motipark.

Cassidy was clear, however, that he doesn’t want to see production affected at the plant.

“That’s not our intention,” he said.

Instead, Cassidy said, he wants the issues resolved before Monday, when the plantacross the Detroit River from Michigan resumes production after a scheduled break. Any ongoing production shutdown would affect 4,671 hourly and salary workers, according to FCA figures.

“The yard is full. Once production starts running, they’re not going to be able to haul cars out of here and it’s just going to back up, and it’s going to shut the line down,” Cassidy said. “Nobody’s in, nobody’s out. That’s where we’re at right now,” 

Cassidy’s local represents 10,000 active and 10,000 retired workers.