Investment group touts success in training Windsorites for battery jobs as NextStar vague on hiring timeline

A training program aimed at boosting local employment in the growing battery manufacturing sector has trained more than 400 people so far, and 97 per cent of them have jobs in the industry, according to Invest WindsorEssex. 

Most of the graduates of the Battery Boost program are working for battery manufacturer NextStar, according to Ed Dawson, the executive director of the Automobility and Innovation Centre at Invest WindsorEssex.

At Thursday media event celebrating the program, two individuals identified as NextStar shift leaders appeared in a video introduced by NextStar CEO Danies Lee.

“I went into NextStar not knowing a single thing about a battery,”  said a man identified in the video as Nick Maceroni, a shift leader in the notching and drying department.

‘The Battery Boost program was amazing’

“The Battery Boost program was amazing for me to understand the whole process and everything.” 

Another woman identified in the video as Ann Kramer, a shift lead in the roll press department, said she was impressed with the breadth of the program, which she said gave her confidence and covered everything from the sources of the materials on up.

The NextStar battery plant was built in partnership with Stellantis to create batteries for electric vehicles  — receiving $15 billion in federal and provincial incentives to do so. 

It promised to hire 2,500 people.

But earlier this month, officials said they would be prioritizing energy storage systems to support grid-scale energy platforms when battery production begins.

Lee did not offer reporters at Thursday’s news conference a timeline on when it would reach the promised jobs target. 

“We tried to adjust our plan based upon our industrialization plan as well as the demand from the … industry too,” he said.

“We are fully committed to the 2,500 people down the road, and we are now at the point of 1,100 people. And over the next few years, I hope that we have good demand coming from the, you know, U.S. market … And also, you know, we get over all the challenges we are facing in the EV industry so that we have a good demand from EVs, so we can quickly get to the point where we need to have all this full employment.”

CBC asked Lee whether the federal and provincial funds received by the company were tied to employment targets.

Lee responded by saying that the company operates independently of Stellantis, which is currently the subject of a federal government dispute resolution process over its decision to move production of its Jeep Compass to the U.S., despite billions in Canadian subsidies provided to the company.

When CBC pressed Lee for more information, a staffer interrupted saying, “That’s all we have time for.” 

Dawson, with Invest WindsorEssex, said the organization plans to continue taking in new training cohorts in the new year.

It just graduated the 10th one last Friday after taking in the first one in February, he said. 

The four-week training program covers the fundamentals of battery manufacturing and then gets into operating procedures, according to the video shown at the news conference.

Participants practice the procedures on virtual simulators, then go into a virtual reality lab to gain further experience, including experience with possible hazards on the shop floor.