Union organizers were making their case at the Toyota plant in Cambridge Saturday. Unifor say jobs will be lost across Ontario after Toyota announced that Corolla production is moving to Mexico.
Over 100 people came to a rally to support unionization. Some who want to be unionized say they are worried their jobs will be in jeopardy.
“Ultimately team members are concerned. We're concerned about what’s happening, we have no idea what is coming in our future,” said Toyota employee Dan Pereira.
“I think that it’s important for everybody to understand; all it is, is a group of people coming together from inside our work force and organizing to ensure that our rights are taken care of,” said Lee Sperduti, who works at Toyota and wants to unionize.
Unifor national president Jerry Dias says local workers need protection.
“There's no question in our mind there will be job loss at the end of the day. The question is not whether there will be, but how many there will be,” Dias said.
"We have made a commitment to stable employment. Right now, all lines are going at maximum capacity," said Toyota GM Greig Mordue in an email to CTV News.
"Our Team Members understand that Toyota has a long history of saying what we’ll do and doing what we say. That may be why actual Team Member attendance at the Unifor event was so low," Mordue said.
Still, auto industry analyst Tony Faria says Unifor has a chance of unionizing Toyota.
“The issue is going to be how many unionizing cards they will get signed. There are about 7,500 Toyota workers in Ontario, they need to get over 50 per cent,” said Faria.
Some workers at CTV Kitchener are represented by Unifor.
