Ontario giving Windsor union $550,000 to fund 'good evil'

The Ministry of Labour is providing money to support two worker adjustment centres in Windsor.

“It’s a good evil,” said Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy. “I say that because we really don't want an adjustment center. We want people working.”

The money will support ‘Better Jobs Ontario’, which is the new name of ‘Second Career’.

“We'll be there with Unifor Local 444 and (Local) 195 as long as it takes,” Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton said Friday at a news conference in Windsor.

According to a ministry news released, it “offers a wide range of dedicated supports to help affected workers prepare to re-enter the workforce and land well-paying auto jobs of the future.”

The release says the program supports “include assistance with job searches, individually tailored career planning, one-to-one peer counselling, and support with resume writing and cover letters.”

“We're offering workers up to $28,000 per individual,” McNaughton said Friday. “All of the training is 12 months or less and every single person will be trained for an in-demand job.”

He said the money is also “flexible” to provide funding for childcare, tuition, workbooks or a living allowance.

“So it's (an) all hands on deck approach to really remove barriers and get them into in-demand jobs,” said McNaughton.

Local 444’s Adjustment Centre is geared for members who lost their job when the third shift was cancelled in July 2020.

Staff have already helped more than 600 workers find a new job or go back to school.

One of the people who lost their job is Sara Vermast who is now the co-ordination of the Adjustment Centre.

“It's very hard because everybody's situation is different,” said Vermast. “Some people lost their job and a couple people, both work there as a family. So it's different, it's hard and challenging.”

Vermast says however what they do makes a difference in people’s lives.

“There's been a couple of members that replied back to us saying that they had success at finding jobs with a resume we helped them rewrite,” said Vermast.

The funding announced Friday will be shared with the brand new Action Centre opened this week at Local 195 to support 289 Syncreon workers who lost their jobs in October 2022.

“We're really focusing on training and upskilling workers for in demand jobs,” said McNaughton who noted “(in) March of 2020, 200,000 jobs in Ontario were going unfilled. Today? It's about 360,000.”

Many of Syncreon’s laid-off workers do not qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) because they did not work enough hours in the previous year, due to downtime at Windsor Assembly because of supply chain issues.

Cassidy says that has brought the issue of EI reform to the forefront.

Unifor is lobbying the federal government to change the program so that workers don’t have to claim their severance as a benefit and to take into account workers who can’t get the hours they need because of the nature of their work.

Cassidy told CTV News he’s confident their lobbying will be effective in Ottawa.

“When the Member of Parliament Irek (Kusmierczyk) met with me shortly after his mandate letter from the Prime Minister, (he) had five things on there. Four things are complete and that one's (EI reform) not,” said Cassidy.