Siemens has told its employees in Tillsonburg that their plant will close early next year.
The announcement was made at a meeting at the Tillsonburg Community Centre on Tuesday morning. A total of 340 employees will be affected by the closure. Among them, 206 are being let go immediately, while the rest will see their jobs phased out.
“This was a very difficult decision that was taken only after assessing all the options,” said David Hickey, head of the Siemens Gamesa Business in Canada. “We have a great team of employees at the plant who have produced quality work for the last six years, and we sincerely appreciate all their efforts. However, the harsh reality is that, in order to remain competitive, we must constantly evaluate our global manufacturing footprint. ”
Siemens employees looking over their severance packages outside of the Tillsonburg Community Centre, July 18, 2017. (Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com)
In a news release issued Tuesday morning, the company said the decision to close the plant is the result of changes to “global and regional markets, combined with physical limitations at the existing plant.”
It says today’s market requires larges blades for wind turbines and the Tillsonburg plant can’t easily be adapted to manufacture larger blades. The company also points to a reduction in the demand for blades in the Eastern Canada market, as well as a slow down in the export market to the US.
“Our focus at this point is on the employees affected by this announcement,” said Hickey. “In addition to their severance packages, we will be providing all affected employees with career counselling, job-placement assistance—including resume preparation—and redeployment where possible.”
Standing outside of the community centre following Tuesday's meeting, employees expressed anger over Siemens handling of the closure.
"The thing that pissed everybody off the most was that they just shut it down and didn't say a word to anybody," said Rick Hunt, who has worked at the manufacturing plant for the past three years. "It was just bang, everything was locked down."
Workers arrived for the midnight shift on Sunday to find production had been halted, the doors locked, and a message that they were to attend a mandatory all-staff meeting on Tuesday. Many employees foresaw the end of the plant after the Ontario government pumped the brakes on renewable energy, suspending new projects last fall, but they remained optimistic any closure was years away.
"It wasn't a complete shock, we knew things were getting bad. We just didn't know how bad," said Michael Boutilier, a four year worker at the facility.
Boutilier said he and many of his co-workers believed they would be given at least six months notice before the plant would be shut down.
"We left production halfway through. There was blades ready to be casted, all this material in there," said Boutilier. "We were waiting for them to stop packing blades then we would know that would be the end but it was production as usual right until the end."
While employees were given a paid day off on Monday, the 24-hour wait to learn their fate was described by Tom Dumolon as gut-wrenching.
"You don't know what kind of severance you're getting or if there is severance. You hear about all these places like Sears filing for bankruptcy and not paying their employees severance so you never know if that is going to happen to us. It was kind of scary," said Dumolon."
The Siemens plant in Tillsonburg opened in 2011 and became one of the community's largest employers. In 2014, it was awarded an $850-million contract to supply blades for what was billed as the largest wind farm in the province near Goderich.
Several area employers have already begun reaching out to Siemens employees who now suddenly find themselves looking for work.
"I've had a job offer. It's only part time but I'm taking it now from one day to the next and I'll see what happens," said four-year Siemens employee Tina Giesbrecht. "Life goes on. There is no sense in getting all riled up and throwing tantrums. It is what it is."