City to advocate to federal government on behalf of Syncreon employees

A show of support for nearly 300 Syncreon Automotive employees by Windsor city council.

Councillors unanimously backed Windsor Mayor Drews Dilkens' notice of motion on Monday evening, encouraging the federal government to let Syncreon employees access full Employment Insurance entitlements and to not penalize employees for receiving severance.

The reason for the motion came from Robert Djordjevic, a 10-year employee of Syncreon, who submitted a written delegation to council last week.

Temporary measures brought into the EI system during the pandemic meant workers needed only 420 hours on the job to qualify, down from between 420 and 700 hours typically required, but the program will revert back to the pre-COVID rules after September 24.

Rob Kennedy, second vice-president of Unifor Local 195, says it's heartbreaking for the members to have to deal with this.

He says the biggest problem is the magic date given by the federal government for the change, which will have a negative impact.

"In essence what will happen is a worker with 10 years will have to wait and burn up all their severance, so for 15 weeks they'd live on their severance and then collect EI. Severance and EI are not even on the same timeline as far as finances," he said.

Mike Borovic, the Unifor plant chairperson, says a lot led up to this over the last few years.

He says due to the unseizing layoff notices employees received last month, many of them will not have the qualifying hours for EI under the pre-COVID program. 

"This has the potential to set up 340 hourly and salary Syncreon employees and their families for failure under the pre-COVID EI program," he continued. "Some of them may be lucky to barely qualify, but only allowing them the minimum entitlement to find an equal job replacement in the minimal amount of time."

Borovic says he's also concerned that those entitled to severance will have that deducted under the pre-COVID EI program.

Linda Poho, the union plant representative at Syncreon, says as a rep a lot of the employees have come to her with their concerns.

"A lot of them have great anxiety, stress, depression and fear of what the future holds for them. For the last two and a half years we've been under financial hardship. And now we're facing more financial hardship," Poho said.

Earlier this summer, the 280 workers learned that Stellantis would be ending its contract with Syncreon and the plant would close on October 30.