A national organization representing skilled workers describes NextStar’s plan to use as many as 900 foreign workers to install equipment at the electric-vehicle (EV) battery plant in Windsor, Ont., as an “insult” to Canada’s tradespeople.
Sean Strickland is executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), which represents more than 500,000 skilled trades workers in 14 unions.
He said the work should go to trained Canadians — specifically workers in southwestern Ontario.
“It’s just absolutely unconscionable,” he said.
“We need to find a way to resolve the situation and maximize the number of Canadian jobs on this project.”
Strickland said workers under their umbrella have performed similar “state of the art technology” in the automotive sector for the past 100 years — including battery plants across North America.
He said NextStar’s requirement of 900 foreign workers who have experience with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is beyond industry standards his organization has seen.
Sean Strickland, executive director for the CBTU, says, ‘We need to find a way to resolve the situation and maximize the number of Canadian jobs on this project.’ (Dalson Chen/CBC)
“We traditionally work alongside original equipment manufacturer representatives when we install the equipment, but not 900.”
On Thursday, NextStar confirmed its plan to hire about 1,600 technicians from outside suppliers to assemble, install and test equipment, including up to 900 “temporary specialized global supplier staff,” mainly from South Korea.
“They have specific knowledge of the equipment, having been part of the team to build it and disassemble it for shipping, and will therefore see the installation through,” the company said in a statement.
An aerial view of the construction of the NextStar Energy battery plant in Windsor, as photographed in June. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)
The plant, a partnership between Stellantis and South Korean company LG Energy Solution, is slated to open in 2025, and received $15 billion in federal and provincial subsidies.
Until his trades union secures a meeting with the companies — which Strickland says has yet to take place — he said it’s too difficult to say what would be an acceptable number of workers coming to Windsor for the project.
Trudeau, Poilievre trade barbs over South Korean EV plant workers
Featured VideoPrime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre get into a heated exchange over the NextStar EV battery factory’s use of foreign workers during question period.
Strickland said work continuing at the battery plant adds urgency.
“I know the base of the building is pretty well done. I know they’re pouring concrete and the equipment install is probably going to happen in the next number of weeks,” he said. “It just re-emphasizes the fact that we need to have a conversation with Stellantis and NextStar.”
The Construction Employers Coordinating Council of Ontario and Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario spoke out against NextStar’s plans.
In a joint emailed statement issued Friday, the two groups said their workers have been involved in the construction, installation and maintenance of projects within the auto, EV and battery sector over the last decade.
“The suggestion … workers need to be brought in on permits to get this completed is a false narrative,” the statement said.
“Put simply, there isn’t a project in Ontario that our Ontario contractors and skilled trades workforce can’t build and we urge the company and the government to engage in dialogue with industry to ensure that happens in Windsor.”
Fedeli says Ontario workers will receive training
Vic Fedeli, provincial minister of economic, job development and trade, said Friday he spoke with NextStar CEO Danies Lee about workers coming to Windsor for the project.
“These workers will also assist with training 700 Ontario workers to equip them with net new skills that will lay the groundwork for work on future projects of this kind as we transition to building the cars of the future,” Fedeli said. “To be clear, these temporary workers will come to Windsor to perform this highly specialized work, upskill Ontario workers, and then return home.”
François-Philippe Champagne, federal minister of industry, said he spoke to the building trade unions Friday and they’re “very much on the same page.”
“Now, what I want to do is to sit down with the company, sit down with the unions, and — and making sure that we understand fully the landscape,” Champagne said. “What is the minimum required amount of people that we need to transfer the technology, and make sure that Canadians and Canadian workers could operate, build this plant, so that we have benefits for generations to come.”
Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he’s pushing for a meeting between Canada’s tradespeople union and the companies involved in the Windsor EV battery factory. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
But other industry and economic experts have said bringing foreign workers to set up and install a new project is very much expected.
“This is what’s going to happen with every partnership, especially in the electrification space with a foreign entity, and I think it’s got to be sort of the pill that needs to be swallowed for a short amount of time,” Joe McCabe, president of Auto Forecast Solutions, told CBC News this week.
“Anywhere you’re going to partnership with a foreign entity, you’re going to have representation from that foreign entity … at least for the kickoff, especially in a battery electric field.”
NextStar said Thursday the temporary staff would be working on site anywhere from three to 18 months before returning home.
“These are not permanent full-time jobs,” a spokesperson said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
