{"id":76600,"date":"2025-08-29T11:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=76600"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:46:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:46:58","slug":"stiles-and-gretzky-demand-action-after-the-diageo-plant-closure-announcement-amherstburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/29\/stiles-and-gretzky-demand-action-after-the-diageo-plant-closure-announcement-amherstburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Stiles and Gretzky demand action after the Diageo plant closure announcement (Crown Royal)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky are calling for action following reports about the Diageo plant closure in Amherstburg, resulting in 160 jobs being shipped off to the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Doug Ford&#8217;s wait-and-see approach is costing us good jobs across the province,\u201d said Stiles. \u201cLosing 160 jobs to the U.S., while Windsor sees the highest unemployment rate in the country, is a devastating blow for the community. We can\u2019t afford a government that shrugs its shoulders and lets the future of thousands of workers across the province hang in the balance of Trump\u2019s chaos. It\u2019s time to step up and fight for every single worker and stop the job losses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerations of families in Windsor-Essex have built their lives around these good-paying jobs,\u201d said Gretzky. \u201cFor nearly a century, families in Amherstburg, LaSalle, Windsor, and across our region have bottled Crown Royal right here in Ontario and Ford continues to stand by while multinational corporations cut and run. Windsor already has the highest unemployment rate in the country and losing these jobs will make things even harder for families and our local economy. We need leadership that puts workers and Ontario\u2019s economy first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>BACKGROUND:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ontario is already facing steep job losses and rising unemployment.<\/li>\n<li>More than 38,000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2025, including nearly 30,000 in manufacturing alone.<\/li>\n<li>Windsor\u2019s unemployment rate has now surged to 11.2 per cent with that being the highest in Canada.<\/li>\n<li>The Ontario NDP is calling for urgent action to protect workers and communities, including stronger buy-local policies, targeted investments in key industries, and a credible provincial plan to keep good jobs in Ontario.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>More&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Diageo workers fight job loss as closure of Crown Royal facility announced<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-lg-8 col-md-8 col-sm-7 swaping-class-left\">\n<p class=\"mb-no\">Aug 28, 2025, 15:17 ET (Unifor)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-5 swaping-class-right\">\n<div class=\"social-share-circle pull-right hidden-xs\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/unifor-protectCDNjobs.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-76601\" src=\"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/unifor-protectCDNjobs-300x188.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/unifor-protectCDNjobs-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/unifor-protectCDNjobs.png 392w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Unifor members at the Diageo plant in <span class=\"xn-location\">Amherstburg, Ont.<\/span> are prepared to fight to save the 170 union jobs following the company&#8217;s shock decision to close the Crown Royal bottling facility in <span class=\"xn-chron\">February 2026<\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Diageo did not have the decency or dignity to talk to the union or its members prior to announcing this closure publicly, knowing how unpopular this decision will be in the region, in a province that continues to boycott American liquor, and in a country determined to protect jobs here at home,&#8221; said Unifor National President <span class=\"xn-person\">Lana Payne<\/span>. &#8220;This company will be talking to Unifor and to these workers\u2014the easy way, or the hard way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>News of the closure broke on the day delegates to Unifor&#8217;s 5<sup>th<\/sup> Constitutional Convention will rally to Protect Canadian Jobs in <span class=\"xn-location\">Vancouver, B.C.<\/span>, reinforcing the union&#8217;s commitment to pushing for industry and government action to invest in Canadians.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t just about the 170 union jobs at the plant, this is about the families, our community and our country. It&#8217;s about how we put our elbows up to protect Canadian jobs,&#8221; said Unifor Local 200 President John D&#8217;Agnolo. &#8220;This facility is the largest employer in <span class=\"xn-location\">Amherstburg<\/span> and the heart and soul of the community. The decision to close the plant makes no sense and shows no loyalty to Canadian workers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unifor is <span class=\"xn-location\">Canada&#8217;s<\/span> largest union in the private sector, representing 320,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in <span class=\"xn-location\">Canada<\/span> and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky are calling for action following reports about the Diageo plant closure in Amherstburg, resulting in 160 jobs being shipped off to the U.S. &#8220;Doug Ford&#8217;s wait-and-see approach is costing us good jobs across the province,\u201d said Stiles. \u201cLosing 160 jobs to the U.S., while &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-provincial"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 10:33:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76603,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76600\/revisions\/76603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}