With just five days to go before the strike deadline, the President of Unifor Local 200 says there's progress in talks with Ford, but it's not coming fast enough.
Chris Taylor says there are a couple of roadblocks before the two sides can say they've got a tentative deal.
"The company has been very reluctant to talk anything about -- details around what investment could or would look like, [or] if there is investment there," he says. "They've hired over 2,200 new hires in Oakville, and they're saying that the new hire grid has put them at a disadvantage."
Taylor has said that new investment at the Windsor Engine Plant is crucial to the future of the facility.
While Taylor says he remains optimistic there won't be a strike at 12:01am Tuesday morning, members of Unifor Local 200 have been assigned strike duty. There are 1,500 workers at Ford's engine plant in Windsor and another 200 on layoff.
Unifor and Fiat-Chrysler reached their deal just past their deadline earlier this month after talks got hung up on the pattern set by General Motors. Fiat-Chrysler was also said to be resisting a commitment for new investment but ultimately agreed to build a new paint facility at its assembly plant in Brampton and to build the first plug-in hybrid vehicle in Canada at the Windsor Assembly Plant.
The deal ratified at both General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler will give workers a modest raise.
- With files from Maureen Revait.