Thunder Bay Bombardier union local president not concerned about company's fortunes

The head of the union local that represents Thunder Bay's Bombardier workers says he isn't worried about the company's financial struggles.

Bombardier posted a loss Thursday of more than $2 billion for 2019 and announced it has sold its remaining stake in the A220 aircraft program. 

French media have also reported that Alstom may buy the company's transportation division, but Unifor Local 1075 president Dominic Pasqualino said he's not worried about a possible sale.

"Even then, at that point we just keep on working, building the products that we do to the best of our abilities," he said. 

"I've worked here for many decades. And I worked here under CanCar or Hawker Siddeley. I worked under Lavalin. We've worked under UTDC, which was an arm of the government. And we just kept on working."

The Thunder Bay plant would be a strong asset for any owner, he added.

"We are a productive plant, and I think that we're one of the shining stars for Bombardier," he said.

Local Bombardier workers are currently finishing a bilevel car contract for Metrolinx and will start another one in the spring, Pasqualino said.

They're also building roofs for Metrolinx cars being assembled in Kingston.

In addition, he said, the Thunder Bay plant will begin installing driverless controls on the Kingston-built cars starting in April.

Pasqualino is eyeing a Toronto plan to build more subway cars as a source of possible future work for the plant, he said, estimating that the contract could be for 80 train sets of six cars each. 

"I know they don't start until 2026, according to Toronto," he said, "but hopefully we can get some money from the feds and from the province, and maybe we can start those jobs earlier."