Unionized workers at the IMT Defence facility in Ingersoll have been on strike since June 2, the chief demand the union has of IMT is to deal with their unfair two-tier wage system at the plant.
What’s not on the table is worker security, something that was brought to light by a recent Village Media article.
The British think-tank, Chatham House, pointed out that there had been a sharp increase in sabotage-like activities at a number of facilities important to Western military support for Ukraine. Munitions plants like IMT Defence in Ingersoll are in danger of Russia-linked sabotage, Chatham House's Keir Giles warns.
"Russia is at war with us in every domain except the open military one, and has been since since far longer than most people in the West have realized," he says.
Jason McDonnell has been working at IMT for 13 years and currently serves as United Steel Workers Local 2918 president at the factory. In his entire time working at the plant, he said they have never been briefed on any security issues like this - in fact, they only learned of the possibility that IMT could be a target after reading the story on StratfordToday.ca.
“I’ve worked there for years and not once have I heard about any threat to the facility, not until I read )the article),” he said. “We’ve never had security talks at work that focused on threats. I remember once during a health and safety meeting about eight years ago, someone asked if there was a procedure in place for what to do in the event of a bomb threat, but human resources didn’t really have an answer.”
He added that security recently became a concern due to the company expanding the building’s footprint. GardaWorld was hired to provide security for that aspect of the plant, but no other additional security measures were added.
“Honestly, I think our security is mostly in the secrecy of what we do,” he said. “This building has been here a long time but we’re not surrounded by chain link fencing or barbed wire so we don’t need active security. But I think we might make more of a point of talking about this with management going forward - that article turned a lot of heads here.”
Ian Andrews has worked at IMT for more than six years and says they have typical security protocols in place; employees aren’t supposed to have their cell phones out on the plant floor, no talking about what they do outside of work or the contracts the company holds. But he doesn’t recall anything ever being discussed with employees about external threats involving at the level of international foreign powers backing sabotage efforts.
“We get updated on what contracts the company has gotten and which ones are doing well, but that’s usually the amount of communication we get,” he said. “We didn’t hear anything from management about this plant being identified as a target or being on some list.”
Anderson admitted that working in a place with military ties and the nature of the product they produce leave he and a lot of other employees with the ‘target on their back’ feeling, but it’s not something they dwell on.
“We’re a producer of munitions, and just that alone is a giant target on us, so it doesn’t matter if it’s the war in Ukraine or another war in general,” he said. “Whether or not we want to be told of a verified threat is a good question and it depends on this: a lot of people would freak out and panic, and that’s a totally valid response, but you really have to be careful if you’re IMT because you don’t want to freak out your workers. If they don’t have workers, they’re not producing. Take my sister as an example. She works here and if she’s told we’re being watched then that’s going to keep her up at night and that impacts a lot of other things. Morale’s already at a low here, so you don’t want to make it worse. And I don’t know if anyone from IMT is going to read this, but if they are, let's go back to the table - it’s about time.”
IMT Defence employs 208 unionized workers and roughly 80 non-union employees.
