Over 500 workers at a Windsor-Essex auto parts factory are joining Unifor Local 444.
The workers at TRQSS have organized to join the union.
TRQSS manufactures seatbelts at a facility at 255 Patillo Rd. in Tecumseh., serving clients such as Toyota, Subaru, General Motors, Mazda and Nissan.
Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy says the employees reached out to the union, expressing frustration with the employer, at which point they started a union certification process.
Cassidy says between 500 and 600 workers have certified to join the union.
"I believe this is the second largest certification we have inside of Unifor, maybe the third largest. One was a federal certification with WestJet, then there was another big one that transpired, and then this one," he says.
Unifor was founded in 2013 as a merger of the Canadian Auto Workers and Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions.
Cassidy says the sooner they can get a collective agreement, the better.
"As soon as we get the certification over to us, signed, I'll make calls to the employer and introduce myself," he says. "Then set up some meetings right away and then pick the dates to get down to putting the first agreement together. So I hope to have that down in a month and a half, two months at the latest."
Cassidy adds the first step will be to elect a bargaining committee and get all the proposals from the workers to build the first collective agreement.