THUNDER BAY -- Delays at Bombardier's plant in Mexico could result in 50 people being laid off in this city.
Unifor national staff representative Andy Savela said the union found out late last week that the company would begin layoffs this week.
"It's because we don't have the parts we need, which I believe are coming from Bombardier operations in Mexico," he said.
Assembly at the Thunder Bay plant can't continue until those parts arrive. Unifor tried to get the company to get workers to stay on and perform other duties, especially during the holiday season, but that wasn't an option.
"It's unfortunate that this layoff occurs through no fault or action of anybody and the Thunder Bay plant," he said. "We're quite disappointed that this has happened."
Savela said he's not sure if the layoffs are permanent. The company laid off 31 people in September.
Bombardier spokeswoman Stephanie Ash confirmed 49 employees will be laid off by Jan. 12, with 23 of those receiving notice this week.
She said it is due to internal reorganization to prepare for full-series production of the new Bi-Level cars, which will start early next year, in addition to a disruption in the availability of parts.
“It is a temporary layoff. We’re doing everything we can to reduce the impact and to reduce the number of people that will be affected,” she said.
“This is a typical part of the manufacturing business. There are ebbs and flow in production. We understand this is a really unfortunate time of year for this to happen but most of our employees are used to this.”
She added the company hopes to have all of the laid off workers back on the job by the end of January.
