Bombardier workers wait for news on contracts

The head of the main union at Thunder Bay's Bombardier plant is cautiously applauding the possibility of more work for his membership.

Dominic Pasqualino, who speaks for about 900 members of the Canadian Autoworkers Union, said Toronto city council'svote Wednesday nightto return to a transit plan that puts more emphasis on light rail lines as opposed to subways isgood news for Bombardier. He said he hopes the uncertainty over what happens next will be cleared away by next month.

"It wouldn't really change the workforce, but it would extend the amount of time that we would be working," Pasqualino said. "That would be my guess ... but it's all too early to tell. It depends on what Toronto decides to do."

There are about 1,200 workers in all at the Bombardier plant.

Community 'suffers'

Pasqualino said, under Fords direction, Torontoreduced the number of cars in the LRV (Light Rail Vehicle) contract.

"Hopefully we can get that back," he said. "Rob Ford had these grand plans for increasing the subway but he never was putting any money to it. So it's best to go back, I think, with the transit plan they had before under [former Toronto mayor David] Miller's time."

Pasqualino said it would be better for the plant if "we weren't having all these on-and-off talks ... it wreaks havoc with our schedule in the plant."

The union representative noted that the LRV work was supposed to expand last year around this time.

"We were taking out old machinery, we were making up space for this Weemptied out a big part of the plant to do this, and then they said well, that might not happen right away," Pasqualino said. "We have lots of Thunder Bay companies supplying the plant ... so it's not just us; it's also the community that suffers when we [do not really know] what's going on."