THUNDER BAY — A lot better job safety for present employees and the chance to draw many extra workers can be two main advantages to the native Alstom plant, ought to the corporate win a $2.2 billion Toronto Transit Fee subway contract, says the president of the power’s union native.
The TTC at the moment has a request for proposals open for a producer to construct 55 new trains for its Line 2, which runs between Etobicoke and Scarborough. The window for firms to bid on the contact closes at 4 p.m. on January 28. The transit operator has obtained $758 million every from the provincial and federal governments, in addition to the Metropolis of Toronto, to fund the challenge.
“So, getting that subway contract, especially right now would mean the world for a lot of our workers,” Justin Roberts, the president of Unifor 1075 said in an interview on Friday. “A new-build train of that size and a contract of that size, it’s the type of job security where our members can feel comfortable going out and getting a mortgage, they can go out and buy the new vehicle that they need.”
“So that’s the type of security that it really gives to our members with a contract like that. They can really start planning for their family and plan ahead financially for all kinds of things with a commitment like that.”
Alstom is “highly interested in that opportunity,” Andrée-Lyne Hallé, a director of public affairs for the corporate, stated in an e-mail to Newswatch. “We are very proud to have provided high-quality and reliable subway cars to Torontonians, built right here in Thunder Bay, for decades and we are ready to do so again.”
The corporate stated, because the bidding course of is ongoing, that it will possibly’t reply to questions on whether or not the corporate has formally submitted a bid or what number of new jobs it might imply for the Thunder Bay facility, ought to Alstom get the contract.
And whereas the TTC will finally select the profitable bid, Ontario’s transportation minister Prabmeet Sarkaria stated, whereas in Thunder Bay, that the provincial authorities needs to see that work achieved in Ontario.
“Whether it be manufacturing, whether it be the maintenance of it, whether it be refurbishment … we made it very clear that we want those contracts to go to jobs that support good paying jobs, especially in facilities like this in Thunder Bay,” Sarkaria stated whereas within the metropolis on January 15 to announce a $500 million contract for the Alstom plant to improve 181 further GO Transit rail automobiles.
“That that should definitely and absolutely be a criteria as those RFPs are evaluated by the TTC.”
Then-Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland made related remarks when Ottawa dedicated its share of funding to the TTC’s Line 2 challenge in November 2024.
The native facility is doing, and has achieved, different work for the TTC below its present and former company possession. That features at the moment establishing an order of 60 LRV streetcars, Roberts stated, including that one other important previous construct challenge was the Toronto Rocket subway trains.
For Roberts, who’s been on the Thunder Bay plant for 17 years, and his colleagues, it’s crucial that different kinds of work, together with large-order construct contracts, proceed to return in.
“There’s major layoffs in between some contracts and it is frustrating for workers because it’s really hard to plan for your personal life financially long term when you can’t have a long-term commitment to work.”
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