700 additional jobs required at Stellantis-LG Windsor EV battery plant

The announcement of a new Stellantis-LG electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor in March promised 2,500 jobs, but the company is already tacking on more positions based on operational needs, according to local economic development officials.

During a talent strategy meeting Thursday between Invest Windsor-Essex (IWE) and the Stellantis-LG joint venture, the company informed local officials it is adjusting the number of workers required at the battery plant to 3,200, according to IWE CEO Stephen MacKenzie.

Now, the focus turns to pulling off a talent strategy that IWE has been developing with the company.

“If economic development is a vehicle, a car, the fuel is the talent and if you don’t have the fuel, the car doesn’t go,” says MacKenzie.

He says the strategy is multi-pronged, but focuses on retention of talent as well as attraction from abroad.

Locally, it includes revisions to existing programs and the addition of news ones at both St. Clair College and the University of Windsor. The focus for existing workers will be up-skilling through the introduction of fast-tracked micro-credentials, which can be completed in six weeks to 18 months — with the goal of training the electric vehicle workforce of the future.

“The generational investment like this, I’ve been telling people if you have kids or grandkids, they’re going to have the opportunity to stay and work here if they decide to do that,” MacKenzie says.

Global talent attraction will also be necessary, starting in our backyard.

MacKenzie says people already in the workforce but working stateside may want to come work here instead of commuting across the Detroit River.

“You often hear about reshoring of industry, maybe we’re going to be looking at reshoring people,” he says.

It will also mean attracting students at an earlier age, starting with high schoolers.

“We’ve got a big job to do to convince young people in Canada this is a really, really attractive and impactful sector to work in,” says Jayson Myers, who heads up Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, a supercluster based out of Waterloo.

“Let’s look beyond the issue about the technical skills,” he says. “Let’s look at attracting young people into an industry that is really going to make a difference for them and I think that’s what appeals to young people.”

Stellantis and LG are in the process of hiring a human resources manager who will work with Invest Windsor-Essex to identify specific skills needs for the EV battery plant.

Invest Windsor-Essex will also be meeting with the company every two weeks until the ribbon cutting at the factory to ensure talent needs are being met.

“They’re going to start hiring in certain categories by the first quarter of 2023 and ramping up to production in August of 2024,” says Joe Goncalves, the director of investment attraction and corporate marketing at Invest Windsor-Essex.

Skilled talent shortages are well documented and are considered by many to be a global problem.

With the spin-off jobs anticipated from the battery plant, MacKenzie says collaboration between industry, educational institutions, government and potential workers will be paramount.

”This could be a 14-16,000 job deal,” he says. “It’s not just going to happen. We have to work it, have a strategy to make sure that we deliver and it’s a win-win for everybody.”