Sisters and Brothers,
First, I would like to thank everyone for your continued support and words of encouragement during my campaign in allowing me to keep representing you as your Committeeperson for the next three years. This will come with many challenges as it has already with the word’s we keep hearing of “unprecedented times”….
COVID-19 Sanitization
Ford called for a shutdown of all their North American manufacturing operations starting March 20th. During March 20th-22nd all hands from Leadec were cleaning and sanitizing every work station, QLS terminal, fan switch, globe balls, lunch area, tables and offices to get the department ready for operations for the down week of March 23-27th. During this week Pre-delivery ran a full two shift crew processing inventory through the blue hut. During this same week there was a seniority canvas in Paint/IQ/MPL for a full cleansing/sanitization. Every station, laboratory, office, hard surface, vertical surface, paint kitchen, stock beds, break areas, satellite areas, lunch rooms etc: has been cleaned/sanitized and checked over by JH&S. In MPL every PMHV has been washed and sanitized with driver seat/controls wrapped in plastic afterwards in waiting for our drivers to get back from lay off weeks. Your Unifor leadership pressured this Company to step up and clean their plant for the safety of our members to help in the fight of COVID-19 and give some assurance to our members.
Downtime
Ford North America shut down all operations till April 20th with the exception of all truck plant which should resume operations March 30th. Oakville is slated to resume operations on April 20th and Labour Relations will be reaching out to its members with instructions on downtimes and return dates. During this time please check in frequently to the Unifor Local 707 web site for up to date notifications.
Paint, QC and pre-delivery departmental recalls
We will be posting some jobs when operations resume after April 20th as we have had and are going to have members retiring. Currently we have 19 man without jobs in paint that are being used for the addition of China export jobs which are slated till the end of June. Once the China orders are done the department will start sending members in line of seniority to the Trim/Chassis departments. A recall list will be created for all those members once displaced. Pre-delivery has 13 members on recall and should see some recall movement in the near future. MPL currently has 11 on recall list.
In closing
None of us have ever seen a pandemic of this magnitude before where it has affected every walk of life in every corner of the globe. Stay Safe with your families and do not hesitate to reach out if you need any assistance.
In Solidarity,
Joe Oliveira
Committee Person – Paint/MPL/BAMR/IQ/ Pre-Delivery
