THUNDER BAY – Embattled and laid-off Bombardier Transportation workers got an early Christmas gift from the company on Wednesday.
David Van der Wee, Bombardier’s chief operating officer, visited with Thunder Bay workers and told them they’d be bringing back between 70 and 80 workers, said they plan to transfer refurbishment work to the city for a project that could last up to 14 months.
“It’s going to be the installation of critical on-board communications equipment. This will start ramping up in April, and by the time we get to full rate, it will be about 70 to 80 jobs,” Van der Wee said in a brief scrum with local media inside the plant.
So I think this is good news and it continues to support our strategy of building a bridge of activity in Thunder Bay to the point where some of these big, ambitious transportation project the Ford government has put on the table really start to get traction.”
In September the company announced it had struck a deal with the province to build 36 new bi-level cars for Metrolinx, but at the same time said it would have no effect on the 550 planned layoffs already made public earlier in the year.
Those layoffs began this fall, and led to the creation of a job action centre to help laid off workers and their families cope with being off the job and help them transition into other occupations.
Domenic Pasqualino, president of Unifor Local 1075, said it’s great news, and a testament to the quality and speed of work being done by his membership at the Thunder Bay plant.
“Because of that work that we’ve been working together so hard on, it looks like we’ll be doing some retrofits for the Metrolinx contract, the (Elginton Crosstown LRT) contract, and that will mean about 80 more people being called back, beginning at the end of March, early April,” Pasqualino said.
“That’s good news. It’s just a reflection of the hard work we’ve been doing to make sure things will thrive over here.”
Pasqualino said he’s confident it will lead to more work.
“There’s no doubt that we are one of the best plants right now. Our product is very good. People love the LRT cars. I know we had a rocky start with them, but at the end of the day, they’re in service and they’re great cars,” he said.
Beyond the Metrolinx deal, Van der Wee isn’t sure what might be on the horizon – at least not publicly.
“I would say I have an increasing level of optimism. Nothing is sure, but I’ll tell you this. As Bombardier, we’ve done a lot of work to bring in other work. About six months ago we decided to move some of the roof assemblies out of Kingston and bring them into Thunder Bay,” he said.
That represented about 40 jobs, Van der Wee added.
“Over on top of that, if you want to think about lasting sustainability, you need to talk about bigger orders.”
Van der Wee said the Toronto Transit Commission has made its intentions quite clear – more rocket subways and street cars.
“There’s been a lot of discussion around that. I know that my team here in Thunder Bay is well positioned to be able to provide those in the shortest time period, in the most cost-effective manner.”
The company does have obstacles, including the Buy America Act which requires 70 per cent of federally funded projects to be manufactured in the United States. Van der Wee said state-funded projects do not have the same requirement, and could represent potential future contracts.
