Local Unifor president wants area MP to stop following party script

The President of Unifor Local 444 is calling out the federal government and Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk. 

"We need to make sure we're putting the pressure on the feds here because right now it's with the feds," says Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy.  

Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Cassidy says he wants to hear something very soon from the government about the EV battery plant in Windsor.

He says he talked to Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Wednesday and told him, "it's time, what are you waiting for."

Cassidy says he's also ticked off with Kusmierczyk and wants the area MP to stop following the party script.

"Listen I'm a supporter of Irek make no mistake but Irek needs to come out and he needs to be shaking some trees publicly, stop following the party script.  He needs to make sure he's sticking up for us in Windsor-Essex.  I haven't talked to Irek in a few days because I'm a little ticked off at him but the facts of the matter are these are 300 potential jobs we could be losing across the ditch and we cannot have that.  Imagine that we're going to ship over the cells, assembly there and ship them back."

When the $5-billion project was announced in 2022, the site was intended to assemble both cells and modules in two different sections, creating 2,500 jobs at the 220-acre property.

Cassidy says he's also concerned Windsor might not get the module component of the plant.

Talks between the federal government, Stellantis and L-G Energy Solution continue over what the companies say are promised production incentives for the NextStar plant.

On Wednesday, Kusmierczyk said he has been in conversation daily with Minister Champagne, who is the point person in negotiations with the companies.

He added the government is in "advanced stages" of negotiations.