Everything Old Is New Again

Have we finally received some good news on the job front! You try and figure this out since I am lost.

The Star on Saturday reported that "New plants to feed DCX." Just-in-time suppliers for DCX and Just-in-the-nick-of-time for Eddie's May 1 State of the City speech.

It looks like 7 suppliers are looking for plants in the area. But the story was not clear to me whether new jobs will be created or will we just break even since Chrysler is cutting jobs. "Some or all of the Windsor suppliers are expected to be unionized, the CAW has said. But the new plants will lead to a net loss of several hundred positions inside Chrysler's sprawling Windsor Assembly Plant on Chrysler Central."

It is a confusing situation to me anyway. In February, the Star reported:

• "The layoff list at DaimlerChrysler Canada's Windsor Assembly Plant has reached 753 people, the company said this week -- the highest count since the Pillette Road van assembly plant closed June 12, 2003.
  
  But there is light at the end of the layoff tunnel, says Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444. All of the 600-odd Chrysler assembly workers currently out of work will be recalled by the end of 2006, he predicted Wednesday as he learned 80 people had been recalled."
  
  

Back in September when the Chrysler-CAW deal was announced, it was said also

• "Lewenza said he was confident enough of his members would retire over the next three years that the members of Local 444 wouldn't need to resort to a worst-case scenario the union negotiated into the deal, under which displaced workers would be put on a preferential hiring list for subassembly work with Chrysler's suppliers."

So I am not sure what the real status is and also what the pay rates are. Will the Jobless Rate numbers go down or is this just musical chairs, with workers going from Chrysler to a supplier? Will the new CAW supplier plants pay the same rate as Chrysler or lower? That is important to businesses in town.

Actually, this is old news being repackaged for political purposes. First on CKLW last Tuesday and now the Star. We have to make people excited don't we. This information was given out back on January 10:

• "More than a dozen new automotive parts plants are coming to the city to supply DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc.'s Windsor Assembly plant for the next-generation minivan, LaSorda confirmed Monday.
  
  Most of the companies coming to Windsor will be building or acquiring new plants to provide Chrysler with sub-assemblies such as complete doors, axles and instrument panels."
  
  

No matter, it will be a big win for Eddie on the first!

And speaking of "supplier parks" being built around Chrysler's North American plants, doesn't that impact DRIC's border numbers too? Parks are being built in Toledo, Ohio, and near Belvidere, Ill. Doesn't that mean that the truck volume numbers should be revised downward, again! Doesn't it mean that the argument for another crossing is losing its strength, again! Doesn't it mean we need to change our focus to fixing the road to the border now? I would have thought so.