Wescast to close foundry operations in Wingham

By May 29, 2023 12:19pm

According to Unifor, Wescast Industries has announced its intention to close its foundry operations in Wingham.

The Wescast Industries foundry, which has been a cornerstone of Wingham since 1902, primarily manufactures exhaust manifolds for major automakers such as Ford, General Motors, and Volvo.

Unifor has expressed its dismay at the decision, emphasizing the dire consequences for the dedicated workforce and the longstanding support from the community.

“Wingham can’t afford to lose hundreds of good jobs and neither can the industry,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Regional Director. “Maintaining these jobs and the footprint of our auto parts supply chain is crucial to maintaining the skilled workforce and industrial capacity needed for the transition to electric vehicle manufacturing.”

“With a complete failure by management to properly invest in this facility, it’s been up to workers to keep this plant running and do more with less,” added Joel Sutton, Unifor Local 4207 plant chair at Wescast. “Wescast has profited from this situation and wants to turn around and reward our hard work and dedication by violating our collective agreement, closing the plant, and moving our work overseas. It’s disgusting.”

The union says that this closure will not only devastate the local workforce and families but also have significant repercussions for the entire auto parts industry.

CKNXNewsToday.ca has reached out to both Wescast and Unifor for additional comment on this story.

More to come.

**Editor’s note: journalists with CKNXNewsToday.ca are members of Unifor