The Canadian Construction Trade Union recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressing frustration over Nextstar’s insistence on employing transient foreign staff through its subcontractors, saying 50 foreign employees were expected to arrive in Windsor in April to make the paintings promised in the past to Canadians. .
The business conglomerate building an electric battery plant in Windsor that will receive billions of dollars from the government has increased its reliance on foreign staff at the site and even taken jobs away from unionized staff in recent weeks, according to explosive new allegations. National Federation of Industry Unions.
The Canadian Union of Construction Trade wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month expressing frustration over Nextstar’s insistence on employing transient foreign staff through its subcontractors, saying 50 foreign employees were expected to arrive in Windsor in early April to do the paintings in the past. promised to Canadians.
The union federation said the paintings could be made seamlessly through local artisans, despite Nextstar’s claims that it was only hiring staff because it needed their “specialist knowledge” to run the facility. For example, the CBTU stated that it had evidence that foreign personnel unloaded equipment for module lines, operated forklifts, and performed installation paint on equipment previously assigned to Canadian personnel.
Nextstar denies those allegations, saying that nearly all of its staff is Canadian and that foreign personnel were “hired temporarily through vendors to install proprietary appliances and is a requirement of warranty obligations. “
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The CBTU says Nextstar uses two suppliers – Jeil Special Canada and Daejin – as subcontractors to bring in foreign workers. South Korean giant LG, one of Nextstar’s parent companies, has even asked its Canadian suppliers to sponsor and supply Korean foreign workers and Mexican nationals with pro-visa and asylum seekers to do the job, according to the union federation.
The CBTU is calling on Trudeau to tell Nextstar to prevent the employment of foreign staff, to direct his employment and immigration ministers to halt the entry of such staff into the plant, and to require Nextstar’s parent corporations to sign agreements making their government tax incentives contingent on the use of local labor.
“This has never been a case of ‘knowledge transfer’ or ‘know-how’ – it has been the blatant displacement of Canadian for ForeignArray through giant foreign companies that mock the Government of Canada, taxpayers and our ArraytradesArray professionals,” the letter reads. signed through CBTU Executive Director Sean Strickland.
The CBTU also said the scenario worsened after a meeting between Trudeau and Nexstar executives last month at the battery plant. They said Nextstar was “encouraged” after that and increased the number of foreign staff on the site.
iPolitics first reported in November that local politicians and union members were involved in the Nextstar factory hiring transient foreign staff for unqualified on-site paintings that may have been made by local artisans.
Jeil Special even got federal approval to hire a transient foreign employee (TFW) at the plant, and the online task directory posts the general duties of the position, such as leading, advising, hiring, and educating staff, making plans, budgeting, and overseeing the day-to-day. operations.
Companies will have to apply for and obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment before they can legally hire a transient foreign worker, and applicants will have to demonstrate that they cannot locate Canadian staff to fill the position.
Although only one TFW has been approved, Nextstar has indicated that it will want to bring in more foreign staff. Local media reported last summer that the Windsor economic progress firm said LG had asked it to form an organization of local developers to locate housing features for staff. Arriving from South Korea Sur. La company expects 600 to 1,000 foreign workers to install the device and 300 to 500 to operate the facility.
But Nextstar told iPolitics on Monday that there are 79 foreign employees on the ground lately, and the remaining 1,896 are all Canadians.
“To ensure NextStar Energy’s good fortune as Canada’s first large-scale EV battery production facility, the company will have to temporarily rely on maximum production experience and know-how, adding global talent, to train, install, test, validate and implement the most modern and state-of-the-art technologies, art and most complex technologies available. ” the company said in a statement.
“This wisdom is imported, if necessary, and transferred locally to allow the plant to thrive and compete in a cutthroat global environment. “
The company also denied trying to circumvent local work “in any way” and claimed it did so “in compliance with all laws and requirements of hard work. “
The CBTU showed that there were about the same number of foreign staff at the site, but said they were making paintings that can be done through unionised metalworkers and builders, adding that another 50 foreign employees had arrived at the site earlier this month. According to the union, 180 locksmiths and factory builders have recently fled their homes.
Nextstar, a collaboration between LG and automaker giant Stellantis, has continuously promised that the $5 billion plant, scheduled to open in 2025, will employ more than 2,500 Canadian workers in the battery production process. and Ontario governments when they announced last summer that they would offer up to $15 billion in tax breaks to keep the Windsor plant running.
The announcement comes after the structure was halted earlier in the year due to requests from plant operators to negotiate an investment deal that would fit what the U. S. would offer through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Of that money, Ontario would provide $5 billion, with the remaining $10 billion coming from Ottawa.
The company told iPolitics that it still plans to launch its business in 2025 and employ 2,500 permanent people.
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But the CBTU said it has long tried to strike deals with Nextstar’s suppliers for its union members to get hard-working contracts at the plant. The union federation said the company and its suppliers have indicated that they need CBTU members to carry out installation paints on appliances, and added unloading and upgrading devices. These types of paints are called “non-mandatory” because those who take them out do not require express certifications.
The CBTU claimed that the situation had changed in recent months, as the painting was being delivered to foreign painters, especially with regard to the unloading of module lines.
But Nextstar says those court cases shouldn’t be directed at the company because it’s not involved in the structure of the facility and the work is left to its subcontractors.
Shortly after iPolitics broke the story in the fall, Nextstar pushed back against accusations that it was bringing in a lot of foreign workers, saying it was only bringing in a few specialized foreign workers on a temporary basis to help free up the facility. pledged to hire Canadians to fill more than 2,500 full-time positions at the Windsor battery plant and is “hiring up to 2,300 more merchants locally and across the province to assist with the ongoing framing and installation of procedural equipment. “
The CBTU said that once the allegations were made public, Trudeau government ministers and Nextstar officials began talks to ensure local artisans get employment opportunities at the site.
Negotiations took place between the CBTU and Nextstar over the winter, but despite repeated efforts, the union federation said Nexstar had refused to hire Canadian staff and had even removed paints from local contractors in recent weeks. paintings on a multi-million dollar press line delivered to Daejin and Jeil.
The union federation said the federal government deserves to cancel all permits to allow foreign staff to work at the Nextstar site instead of local union staff and to take into account a directive calling for further vetting of Korean nationals entering the country under the terms of Canadian law. Korea, whose destination is Windsor, also needs Ottawa to amend its contract with Nextstar to make the currency conditional on reaching an agreement with the CBTU or making sure domestic staff do the job.
But Nextstar said it doesn’t directly construct the facility’s buildings or install the appliances and therefore doesn’t have to sign an agreement on the number of jobs. Despite this, the company said it “regularly interacts with the CBTU to ensure that site plans are well understood. “
“There have been many face-to-face and/or virtual meetings with the CBTU and local representatives to share data regarding the plan and schedule of the paintings. We have shown that we will continue the discussion until the final touch of the project. “Danies Lee, CEO of Nextstar, said in a statement.
“We are committed to continuing ongoing discussions on this vital task with designated organization meetings at an agreed-upon frequency to ensure we actively speak up and address issues. “
In addition to the call for federal intervention, an Ontario Construction Trade Council also wrote to Premier Doug Ford asking his government to provide local staff with opportunities at the plant and inspire on-site enforcement of provincial labour laws.
A request for comment to the Prime Minister’s Office was not answered by press time.
Shortly after iPolitics’ first report, the industry committee of the House of Commons introduced a policy on the use of foreign staff at the Nextstar plant.
The Conservatives have called on the Liberals to disclose undrafted contracts with Nextstar and similar corporations for the electric vehicle battery plant being built in Windsor, as well as deals with foreign manufacturers.
Conservative MP Rick Perkins introduced a move in the House industry committee in November to have unredacted contract documents made public to members, but that move was defeated and liberals and the bloc voted against it.
Instead, the committee supported a six-hour examination of the Nextstar plant and presented members with “lightly redacted” versions of the contract confidentially, as proposed by Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull, who is also parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Industry.
However, Perkins was able to see at least one of the contracts signed with the battery manufacturers: the agreement signed with Volkswagen. Earlier this year, he said there was nothing “commercially sensitive” and there were also no provisions to protect the jobs of Canadians. , so, according to him, liberals don’t need to make them public.
“They didn’t negotiate a smart contract and they’re stuck in those failures. “