'It’s a good plant': The final days of Cooper Standard

It operated under different names over the last 35 years, but what was most recently the Cooper Standard plant is now being shuttered.

"It's a good plant and for sure it's going to be missed in this community,” Unifor local 27 President Brian Chapman told CTV News.

At its peak, counting union members and administration staff, about 450 people worked in the auto parts plant. It was Glencoe’s largest employer, and a significant economic driver in the town of just over 2,000 people, but what it produced is going out of style.

"They made gas lines for vehicles,” said Chapman. “This is what's happening here now. We're switching over to electrical vehicles, or at least they're trying to, right? So they don't need gas lines for electrical vehicles and, really, that's what closed this plant."

Chapman said the union tried to get the U.S based Cooper Standard to bring other production lines to the plant with no success. Still, he's pleased with the compensation package workers received and said the vast majority had no complaints with what was offered, “A couple of contracts ago, we bargained in enhanced closure language, which, at the time, seemed, 'why are we doing that?' In hindsight, it looks like we were geniuses."

The Ontario Labour Ministry recently provided funding to help support an Employment Action Centre to support former Cooper Standard employees. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

The notice of closure was delivered to the 116 unionized workers last June and most were off the job by the end of the year.

Chapman said six of the people given a package had worked in the plant for its entire 35 year existence. The average employment tenure for all those remaining was 20 years.

About a dozen people remain on site, mostly tradespeople removing equipment.

The plant needs to be empty by March 31. A ‘For Sale’ sign sits out front of the plant located on Appin Road, just inside the eastern border of Glencoe.

On Thursday, Labour Minister David Piccini announced that $272,165 had been provided to help maintain an employment action centre.

The money will be for job training, literacy and essential skills training, budgeting and financial training, as well as mental health supports.

"Cooper Standard were a very good employer," said Southwest Middlesex Mayor Allan Mayhew. He noted that Cooper Standard employees weren’t only from Glencoe, but would travel from other area communities, including Newbury, Alvinston, and Wardsville.

A massive new facility to grow pepper plants is taking shape in Glencoe, seen on Feb. 9, 2024. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

Mayhew stressed that in the past, losing the Cooper Standard operation would have been a serious blow to the area economy.

He said the township, working with Middlesex County economic development staff, has been diversifying the local economy, with more emphasis on agriculture.

He points to the $90-million first phase of an operation that will grow pepper plants.

"That is a state-of-the-art facility," he exclaimed.

The facility is located on the south edge of Glencoe on Industrial Road. It is being built by COFRA Holding, a Swiss-based private holding company with an estimated value of $25-billion.

In recent years, COFRA has become heavily invested in sustainable farming.

Mayhew noted the Glencoe facility will be based on vertical farming, "They sell the plant to the producers. They don't sell the fruit, but they propagate the plant. It's a very high-tech facility and we're very fortunate to be able to host them."

Mayhew is hoping it will help the community build ties with other European agriculture businesses.

He is also encouraged by other economic development initiatives currently in the works, and is confident more announcements will come soon.