As controversy swirls regarding recent reports of up to 1,600 temporary foreign workers (TFW) being brought to Windsor to help set up the NextStar EV battery plant, Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy says the issue is nothing more than political hay.
Speaking with CTV News, Cassidy said the right people with the right expertise need to be here when it comes to setting up the new technology inside the plant, which is currently under construction.
“We don't need any of this political hay going on,” Cassidy said. “We cannot continue to put these blockers up relative to this facility.”
Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Tuesday he expects NextStar Energy Inc. to bring in “very few” foreign workers to help transfer battery manufacturing technology as Canada establishes a new industry.
He said he spoke with the CEO of NextStar on Monday, along with the head of Stellantis that co-owns NextStar with LG Corp., and was reassured by their commitments to hire upwards of 2,500 Canadians.
Only one temporary foreign worker has been approved so far.
Politicians of all stripes have been asking questions and pointing fingers with federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre calling for a full inquiry into the matter on Monday, less than a week after his visit to Windsor.
According to Cassidy, temporary foreign workers will not be taking any permanent jobs.
“The reality is, this is nothing new,” Cassidy said.
“If you want to go back to 2015 on the South Korean deal that was signed by the Harper government, under their labor mobility provisions, they can friggin’ bring the people in. They can bring South Koreans in today, so nothing's changed.”
Cassidy explained, “We have 900 skilled trades working on the site today — 900. We're gonna go up to about 2,000 trades, they tell me it's going to go up to about 2,000 trades. There's also on top of that going to be 2,500 unionized Local 444 members inside that facility.”
“We have some proprietary equipment that's going to be coming in that they're going to be working with our outside building trades, you know, temporary foreign workers coming here to take our jobs. That's not going to happen.”
“The biggest thing that bothers me here is now they're going to a committee. They're going to have committee meetings in parliament, wasting taxpayers’ dollars,” Cassidy continued. “They're gonna go through hours and hours of committee meetings to figure out what they want to do moving forward relative to what had happened, what is happening with the with the temporary foreign workers and workers coming in from Korea.”
“So I just don't understand why we're going through this process. The reality is, this is about Canadian jobs. We're going to continue to have Canadian jobs. One tweet, one tweet by police chief has sparked this entire conversation.”
Concerns were raised following a social media post last week by Windsor police, who said that after meeting with South Korean ambassador Woongsoon Lim, it expected about 1,600 workers from South Korea to come to the community next year to help build the plant.
On Wednesday, Windsor police told CTV News they did not have a comment regarding the tweet.
“I think that this story has been overblown,” said, Automotive News Canada digital editor, Greg Layson.
“I don't think that it's unheard of for a foreign company to come to Canada or the United States for that matter and bring their own expertise with them to help them launch what is our first electric vehicle battery plant in Canada.”
“So for those people who say we have Canadians that can do this job, no, we do not. We might have some, but we don't have enough,” Layson continued. “We've never launched an electric vehicle battery plant in Canada. So this comes as no surprise that LG Energy Solutions and NextStar would want to bring in some of their own staff to get this thing up and running.”
“There are 900 Canadian labourers building that plant right now. So it's not to build the plant. It's to launch the plant and I think that nuance has been lost.”
“I feel like this is normal business practice in the automotive industry.”
“Everything today is politicized, polarized and weaponized by one side of the political spectrum or the other,” Layson said. “And what we're seeing, from where I sit, is just the weaponization of a number 1,600, the weaponization of a program, the temporary foreign workers program for one side of the political spectrum to gain the upper hand on the other and the auto industry is caught in the middle.”
Battery production at the new plant is expected to begin in early 2025.
-- With files from AM800 News
