The union representing workers at a Windsor plant slated for closure will meet once again with the company.
Nemak and Unifor Local 200, which represents workers at the Windsor plant, will sit down for another crack at arbitration on November 4. The date was confirmed by Nemak's North American spokesperson Lucy Wildman, who clarified that the date had always been on the calendar.
"This is not a 'new' date, it has been the plan all along that it would be the third day," said Wildman in an email to BlackburnNewsWindsor.com.
The two sides have been embroiled in a dispute over the Windsor plant's scheduled closing in the summer of 2020. Nemak said the closing was announced after the early phase-out of an export program with a Chinese customer. However, Unifor Local 200 said Nemak violated the terms of its collective bargaining agreement when it put the plant on the chopping block. Those terms included employees agreeing to a pay cut in exchange for keeping the plant open through 2022.
Workers staged a walkout on Labour Day in protest and stayed off the job for about two weeks, defying court orders and the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Both sides met for talks over two days earlier this month, but they broke off when an agreement could not be reached. A meeting with an arbitrator took place last week.
Local 200 and Nemak have agreed to abide by whatever ruling the arbitrator puts forth.
