Workers at INEOS Styrolution in Sarnia are making a plea for government intervention.
Unifor National Representative Gary Lynch said the union is calling on the federal and provincial governments to step in and possibly prevent the Tashmoo Avenue facility from closing.
"Some government grants and help with fixing of the issue, not just here's a burden and you can't meet the requirements they've changed and slap a new order down," said Lynch. "There's just no help. There was a $758 million capital grant given to a subway bus component builder in Thunder Bay, so I mean there's obviously money there."
He said securing a new investor for the plant would be ideal.
"There's about five or six refineries that produce benzene and it all gets sent to this facility to deal with and make it into plastics and whatever else," said Lynch. "The closure of this site is going to be catastrophic for the whole valley in my opinion."
Unifor represents about 46 of the 80 employees at the site, including instrument technicians, millwrights, and rack loaders.
"We just finished bargaining back in April of 2024, and there was no talk of anything to do with closure or decommissioning or anything like that, so yeah they're not feeling very good right now," said Lynch.
INEOS, in an email to Sarnia News Today, said while the precise date of the site closure is yet to be determined, the company is working closely with all necessary parties and expects to complete the decommissioning and orderly wind-down process by early Q4 2025.
Lynch said he doesn't believe the company did its due diligence in trying to sell the facility, before deciding to close.
"This workforce is highly educated, well trained and I feel like they're getting the short end of the stick here," said Lynch. "My other concern is about job placement leaving there. There's got to be an environmental assessment of the property, there's groundwater, rainwater containment, a lot of things to be dealt with that haven't been explained to us how it's going to be done yet."
In a previous statement, INEOS Styrolution's CEO Steve Harrington said they're now focused on the next steps.
“We are now focused on conducting a safe, responsible, and compliant closure process and supporting our employees, contractors, customers, and partners, including offering transition support for impacted employees," he said.
In October, it was announced INEOS would be closing its ABS production site in Addyston, Ohio.
The company said after a thorough analysis, it concluded that the substantial investment needed to continue operations and achieve profitable cost competitiveness makes this site no longer economical.
The Addyston site manufactures ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and SAN (styrene acrylonitrile) polymers that are used in a wide variety of applications and industries including automotive, household, healthcare and construction.