Kitchener auto parts plant may be shut down, union says

Flags fly outside the Lear auto parts plant in Kitchener on Thursday, April 16, 2015. (Kevin Doerr / CTV Kitchener)

At its peak, Kitchener’s Lear Canada auto parts plant employed nearly 1,000 people.

Now that number sits at less than 200 – and according to the union representing those workers, it could soon be zero.

In a letter sent to employees this week, representatives of Unifor Local 1524 said that negotiations meant to extend the agreement between the company and the union past next January have turned into “what now seems to be bargaining the wind-up of the plant” at Homer Watson Boulevard and Manitou Drive.

“It seems that (Lear) has no work to put in this facility and they are clear that the plant cannot survive with just Chrysler LX work in it,” the letter reads.

That Chrysler work, which involved the production of metal parts of seats, is the only major contract involving Lear’s operation in Kitchener.

According to Unifor, which also represents some CTV employees, workers previously agreed to cut the pay rate for new hires from $28 per hour to $19.50, in the hopes it would extend the plant’s life – hopes they now consider unfounded.

“Like Toyota, Lear Corporation wants to move their production to Mexico, but the timeframe appears much shorter,” Unifor 1524 president Brian Little told CTV News in an email.

The Michigan-based Lear Corporation did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published.