Unifor President Lana Payne isn’t mincing phrases concerning the union’s intentions for Volkswagen Group’s deliberate battery cell manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

For “the primary time in a very long time,” she informed Automotive Information Canada, Unifor will “get to broaden the unionized footprint” in Canada’s auto sector.

“That’s going to be our objective, I’m not going to sugar-coat it.”

Volkswagen’s in-house battery subsidiary PowerCo introduced plans to construct the $7 billion electrical car battery plant within the metropolis halfway between Toronto and Windsor on April 21. Building will begin subsequent yr, with the primary battery cell scheduled to be produced in 2027.

By 2030, the brand new plant is predicted to make use of 3,000 employees, and the union might be doing “all the things we will” to make sure these employees grow to be Unifor members, Payne stated.

Unifor represents about 22,000 hourly employees at Ford Motor Co., Normal Motors and Stellantis crops in Ontario, in addition to about 17,000 employees at greater than 100 components suppliers throughout Ontario and Quebec.

And with unions at the moment experiencing what Payne has known as an “organizing second,” Unifor has not too long ago introduced employees at a number of components crops into its fold, most notably about 600 employees at Windsor, Ont. seatbelt producer TRQSS Inc. this January.

But regardless of years of attempting, the union has made no headway organizing employees at two of the Canadian auto business’s largest employers. 1000’s of staff at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.’s three crops in southwestern Ontario, and people at Honda of Canada Mfg.’s three-plant campus north of Toronto, stay non-unionized.

However Volkswagen takes a unique strategy to unions, Payne stated, one she hopes will see administration take an unobstructive stance.

“They’ve an essential historical past working with unions,” she stated, referencing the corporate’s extremely unionized German and international operations. Volkswagen amenities additionally sometimes have unbiased work councils made up of each white- and blue-collar employees that sort out plant points collectively.

However essentially the most evident exception to those firm norms is the plant closest to St Thomas.

The United Auto Staff have twice tried and twice failed to prepare employees on the Volkswagen Chattanooga Meeting Plant in Tennessee. The preliminary vote in 2014 was supported by administration, however opposed by vocal third-parties within the overwhelmingly non-unionized U.S. South. The primary union drive failed by three proportion factors, and the second unionization vote failed in 2019 by an excellent slimmer margin.

Payne stated anti-union campaigning, which concerned elected Tennessee officers, gained’t be repeated north of the border.

“That won’t be taking place in Canada, and it mustn’t occur in Canada.”

Manufacturing on the St. Thomas plant stays years away, however Unifor has begun to carry early discussions concerning the website with its fellow unions in Germany, Payne stated. It has not but reached out to Volkswagen, however plans to “when prepared.”

Finally, Payne stated, the choice will come right down to the longer term employees on the cell plant.

“The important thing right here is we’re speaking to the employees which might be going to be employed there, and ensuring that they see the advantages of being a part of an auto union, a part of our union, and a part of with the ability to cut price their future working situations.”