Stiles joins London union leaders in calling for workers’ action centre to remain open in wake of auto layoffs

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles met with union leaders in London regarding the closure of Autoneum. Bryan Bicknell reports.

There are fears that laid off workers from London’s auto sector will soon have nowhere to turn to help with re-training.

This comes as a workers’ action centre gets set to wind down in just a few days.

“The ones that are 50 years old, you know you got 15 years before you can even look at retirement, and you have to go find a job, the way the economy is now,” said Leo Vasquez, the Unifor Unit Chair for Autoneum London.

According to Unifor Local 27, the action centre, located at the Unifor office on First Street, is slated to close Feb. 9, 2026.

It follows the announcement from parts maker Autoneum earlier this month that it’s consolidating operations into its Tillsonburg plant over the course of the year, leaving more than 130 London employees out of work.

The action centre first opened with the closure of the Accuride plant in east London one year ago. It then expanded to serve workers from the GM CAMI plant in Ingersoll.

Now, with more laid off workers coming from Autoneum, union leaders fear this is just the beginning.

Unifor Local 27 President Brian Chapman says the union is calling on the provincial government to extend the life of the action centre indefinitely.

“My fear is, it’s going to get bigger, it’s not just going to be auto. And you can kind of see the signs. I’ve been in this for a while, and you can see the signs coming,” he said.

Unifor Local 27 executives were joined Friday by Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles, along with local NDP MPPs Teresa Armstrong, Peggy Sattler, and Terence Kernaghan. They met to talk about ongoing struggles in the local auto sector, including the Autoneum plant closure.

Stiles tells CTV News she’ll pressure the Ford government to keep the action centre open.

“It’s my job as leader of the opposition to continue to pressure the government to take action quickly. The workers’ action centre is a really good example of that. There’s something they could do today and just give them the comfort of knowing that the workers action centre is going to be there for them,” Stiles said.

A statement from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development

“Our government is taking action to protect Ontario workers by ensuring they continue to have access to wrap-around supports when they need them most. The Ministry is working directly with Unifor to transition the existing action centre into a newly enhanced POWER centre that will ensure workers and the community remain supported.”