Stellantis, a major automotive company, has issued a mandatory vaccination policy for its Canadian employees based in Windsor, calling for its staff to be inoculated by mid-December or risk termination.
Several auto companies jointly released their new mandatory vaccination rules last week, asking employees to comply by December 17.
Stellantis is requiring its nearly 4,500 workers at the Windsor Assembly Plant and another 1,500 employees with the city’s two Ford engine assembly plants to take their shots. Stellantis spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin told Windsor Star that individual employees “might qualify for medical or religious exemptions,” but their situation will be assessed by the company on a case-to-case basis.
The company is also increasing its education and training efforts on the benefits of vaccination, to address any concerns and reservations their employees may have.
“We are communicating with employees and providing training or literature if people want to learn more about the vaccines,” Gosselin said, who added that the consequences for non-compliance can include (but is not limited to) termination of employment.
However, the mandatory vaccination order has been “divisive” among the workers, the union representing workers at Stellantis' Windsor Assembly Plant said.
"Our job as a union is to make sure that we protect everybody," said Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy in a video statement posted on social media. "If people don't want to get vaccinated, that's your choice. And I don't want to mislead anybody, though, because with choices sometimes there's consequences."
According to Cassidy, he has met with some other union members that have expressed anxiety around the mandate “based on what [the] media has unfortunately portrayed over a long time.” But the union president also said that he received “a lot of messages” from other people who said they support the vaccination mandate.
CBC News reported that other organizations in the Windsor-Essex area that have implemented worker vaccination mandates include Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel Dieu Grace HealthCare and the University of Windsor.
