THUNDER BAY - Bombardier Transportation has reassigned the general manager of its Thunder Bay plant, barely more than two years after she was appointed to the job.
Carolyne Leroux is joining the company's team working on a bid for a transportation contract at the Los Angeles Airport.
In an internal memo to staff, the company says "her dynamism and project management experience will be key to successfully lead the bid team" for the Los Angeles project.
Leroux is being replaced in Thunder Bay on an interim basis by Dave Black, currently the general manager at Bombardier's plant in Plattsburgh, NY.
The memo states that Black will bring "his deep domain expertise in Methods and leverage the Plattsburgh shop floor management system," developed from the company's Achieving Excellence program, to lead the Thunder Bay team.
Dominic Pasqualino, president of Unifor Local 1075 representing the bulk of the Thunder Bay work force, said "Yeah, we've had a few come and go through here. We've worked well with Carolyne...now there are new opportunities for her. The person that's coming here used to be at the plant at one time and worked well here as well."
Pasqualino said he's looking forward to the same kind of good working relationship with Black as Unifor has enjoyed with Leroux.
"People worked with him here in the past...A lot of our members remember him well and are saying positive things about him. It's tough to do that job, and obviously we've gone through quite a few people."
Bombardier spokesperson Marc-Andre Lefebvre said Black will continue his role at the Plattsburgh plant, the company's lead manufacturing plant for the Americas, while he oversees Thunder Bay operations.
"He's already shown high leadership in every position that he's had...Dave has lots of experience for Thunder Bay, if only for the fact that all bi-level (cars) that go to the United States start off in Thunder Bay but pass through Plattsburgh for final assembly. So he knows Thunder Bay pretty well."
LeFebvre added that Black has extensive experience with shop-floor management...One of the things he's been able to implement in Plattsburgh and in other places is the Achieving Excellence System, which leads to a much more effective type of operation on the shop floor."
He declined to comment on how that system might affect operations in Thunder Bay, saying the elements of that system are proprietary, so will only be discussed internally with employees.
Black arrives at the plant later this month with the local plant facing the challenge of rapidly increasing the delivery rate for Toronto streetcars from four per month to eight per month by the end of the year.
"This is the crunch," LeFebvre said. "This is something that we'll need all of our employees to do. We're counting on the best practices, counting on everyone in our business to make that happen."
