Union Members Protest Outside Windsor Costco Site Over Use of Out-of-Province Subcontractors
Union members gathered outside the construction site of Windsor’s future Costco on Wednesday, calling attention to what they describe as a missed opportunity for local skilled workers. Approximately two dozen members of several local construction unions protested near Lauzon Parkway, accusing the retail giant of overlooking qualified Windsor-area workers in favor of subcontractors from outside the province.
Union Workers Say They Were Passed Over
Don Smith, an ironworker with Ironworkers Local 700, said the protest was organized to raise community awareness about Costco’s hiring decisions for the project.
“We’d like to go to work and they’re bringing people from outside the province,” Smith said. “We just wanted to come out and make the community aware of what Costco is doing here.”
Smith emphasized that the protest was driven by the real economic hardship facing unemployed tradespeople in the region. “Everyone knows how hard it is to afford food,” he said. “If you’re unemployed, it’s even harder. We have qualified people who can do this job.”
High Unemployment Among Local Trades
Dave Campbell, organizer for the Sheet Metal Workers and Roofers Union Local 235, highlighted the severity of unemployment among his union’s members, estimating it at around 40 percent despite recent industry-wide efforts to recruit more people into the skilled trades.
“Our community needs to be aware of this,” Campbell said. “We are here in the community, ready, willing and able to work.”
Campbell added that three local union contractors had applied for work on the Costco project but were not selected. He noted that his union had even offered wage subsidies through its stabilization fund in an effort to make local bids more competitive for the job.
“It’s a struggle when the corporate world takes over our communities,” Campbell said. “If no one knows that our workers are available to work and build things in our own backyard, maybe we just need to make that voice heard.”
Unions Acknowledge Costco’s Right to Choose Contractors
While the unions acknowledged that Costco, as a private company, is entitled to select its own contractors, they argued that the company should place greater emphasis on employing local skilled workers who are ready and able to contribute to projects in their own community.
As of Wednesday, Costco had not responded to a request for comment regarding the protest and the unions’ concerns about the use of out-of-Province subcontractors for the Windsor location.
