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Bombardier to lay off 200 workers

Work in the plant will be slowing down as manufacturing components for ventilators is expected to be completed in the coming months.
Socially Distanced Bombardier Transportion Town Hall 2
Bombardier townhall (Photo supplied)

THUNDER BAY - The local Bombardier plant will be facing more layoffs this fall, as work manufacturing components for ventilators is expected to be competed in the coming months and no additional contracts secured.

Dominic Pasqualino, president of Unifor Local 1075, confirmed 125 workers will be laid off by mid-October and an additional 75 in early 2021 as work continues to empty.

“The biggest concern is getting more contracts,” he said. “Unfortunately, it looks like the ventilators will be completed in the next couple of months and also we will be slowing the line down so we will have continuity and that’s on the bi-level cars.”

Earlier this year, the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay began work on manufacturing ventilator components for Southern Ontario-based company O-Two Medical Industries to help in the fight against COVID-19.

Workers were informed of the layoffs during a town hall meeting on Wednesday with David Van Der Wee, chief operating officer for Bombardier Transportation in the Americas.

Last May, Bombardier secured a contract to build 28 bi-level cars for two U.S. transit authorities.

At the time, the contract was seen as a way to bridge the gap to more substantial work for the local plant.

“Everybody knows we are trying to get the LRV contracts and it's vital that we get those contracts,” Pasqualino said.

“Having said that, we are going to need more than that. They are just beginning to talk about more subway cars. That is a contract we are going to need to sustain any kind of level that we would be comfortable with at the plant to make us profitable.”

Bombardier Transportation is also in the process of being acquired by the Paris-based company Alstom, and Pasqualino said there are concerns what that acquisition will look like for the local plant if no new contracts are secured.

“Frankly that doesn’t bode well if we hand over an empty plant or a slow plant,” he said.

“I know these hurdles are what we have to face. It’s really important we have all levels of government realize the urgency of this situation and work at getting us more work. Everyone knows we need more transit.”

The Thunder Bay Bombardier plant has faced many challenges in the last year, with more than 500 workers of the 1,100 laid off last November after two major contracts concluded at the end of 2019.

Van Der Wee will be speaking with local media at noon on Wednesday.



Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
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