Fiat Chrysler Automobiles hiring at Windsor Assembly Plant

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is hiring line production workers for its Windsor Assembly Plant, where the company's flagship minivan is built.

• Chrysler expands Windsor plant, preps for 'future vehicle'
• Chrysler employees back to work after $2B renovation of Windsor Assembly Plant

LouAnn Gosselin, head of communications for FCA Canada, would not say how many positions need to be filled.

The jobs were posted on the company's careers website Monday.It's not clear how many people will be hired to work on the assembly line, but they will be unionized.

Theyare expected to replace workers lost through attrition as well as boost employee ranksin preparation for the new 2016 Chrysler Town and Country minivan, said Dino Chiodo, the president of Unifor Local 444, which represents approximately 4,500 hourly workers at the facility.

"This shows there is some longevity, some commitment and stimulus in the economy," Chiodo said in an interview with CBC News.

"People can make purchases knowing they have a job to go to tomorrow or the day after," he said. "There are always challenges, but it starts to putpeople in a place where they feel comfortable, where they start to spend in a community and that goes a long way in making a stable economy."

The company is also hiring a handful of supervisors and an engineer.

Chiodo said this round of hiring is a result of the $2-billion US renovation and upgrade of its minivan assembly plant earlier this year.

This is significant because those renovations included robotics units which usually cost jobs, said Tony Faria, the co-director of the Office of Automotive and Vehicle Research at the University of Windsor, in a phone interview with CBC News.

"Those types of investments tend to eliminate jobs, so this is positive," Faria said.

He said the industry, both in terms of North American sales and production, is slowly bouncing back.

"This is the third consecutive year where there will be a new Canadian sales record. In the United States, sales remain high," Faria said. "Little by little, we're getting back to where we were in 2007,"

The Windsor plant will continue to build the same minivan model currently for sale on dealer lots across North America. The revamped and all new 2016 Town and Country model went into production this past summer.

There has been speculation the plant is also preparing to build a second vehicle.Even Fiat Chrysler hinted at "a future vehicle" at the end of 2014.