The first face-to-face meeting in more than a year between former Navistar Chatham workers and company executives is on tap for Thursday.

The session, involving officials of CAW Local 127 – which represents factory workers and Local 35 – representing office workers – will be held in Windsor.

A plan tabled last year by the company to greatly downsize operations at the Richmond Street truck plant was flatly rejected by the CAW.

Since the old contract expired at the end of June last year the plant has sat idled. In its heyday in the late 1990s it employed more than 2,200 workers.

CAW representatives are hopeful tomorrow’s meeting will shed new light on the company’s plans for the Chatham facility.

Company spokesman Roy Wiley has said repeatedly the company is willing to talk provided the talks are productive.

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Navistar workers have made a significant impact and should play a role in the future, said a labour delegation to Chatham- Kent council on Monday.

More than 150 people took part in a march from Canadian Auto Workers headquarters to the Civic Centre to raise awareness on the idled truck-making facility.

Aaron Neaves, CAW Local 127 president, said a grassroots effort is needed to lobby senior levels of government to get involved.

“The Navistar plant is important,” he said. “Too important to let slip away.”

He said the economy is on the upswing with a higher demand projected for heavy-duty trucks.

“We need to ensure our plant and our community take part in this recovery,” he said.

In the 1990s, the Richmond Street facility employed more than 2,000 workers. The plant was idled at the end of June last year when the last contract expired.

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