production lead

cnc operator

technologist

senior financial analyst

millwright

Wescast Industries

A company that pays fairly well for the manual labour you do, machining here is dirty. It’s hot in the winter and super hot in the summer. You wear 5lbs of ppe (mask, earplugs, safety glasses, steel toed boots with tarsal tongue covers and long pants) You’re treated like a 13 year old delinquent most of the time, but will entrust you with responsibilities of management in a heartbeat if it is easier for them. The benefits are good, the pay is alright if you stay in the machine shop and manage to get to top rate (20.50), however I would not recommend doing anything extra, cause once you do, they’ll expect it of you from then on. They have no plan for people needed days off, holidays or sick days- the most loyal employee could have all holidays and sick days available and the head management will deny your request while she looks you in the eye and goes home early. If you’re looking for good money and a solid job for a while, here it is; but there is a reason most employees pass through regularly; overworked and under appreciated. Thank you goes along way: but this company doesn’t have those words in their vocabulary. Shift leaders are great though, they do their best with the pile of junk that’s thrown at them every day and the fact that quality and upper management only make decisions based on what’s good for them, and what looks good on paper. 
I’ll miss a lot of my co-workers, they’re the few good things left in that place. 

A typical day involves management of CAD data - evaluating incoming customer data then creating from those parts a model that can be cast and also machined. Once approved by the customer, the cast model is then prepped as a single impression mould to be delivered to a tooling vendor to make the finished full tooling. We prefer to control where the parting lines go and how the coreprinting looks and let the tooling vendor add the venting, blow tubes, plate clearances etc so we can have a faster throughput of parts. Initially when I started to work for Wescast we were more involved with the product design but the OEM's took back that responsibility so now we ensure their designs can actually be made - because often times the casting process is not considered by the OEM's when they create their product models. So there was a change in direction for my department which has led to very accurate part models and drawings going to the OEM's - showing loading and draft and feeder paths or any other modifications we might have to make to get a high quality casting made. The most enjoyable part and the most difficult part of the job is really the same thing - using your abilities to understand what needs to be done to get a "cast-able" part and then modelling it accurately because every part is different. Some parts are very complex and require several cores others are fairly simple and straightforward.

Was once the best place in the area to work.  Management cared, was participative.  Employees were challenged and engaged.  Pay and benefits were decent.  Incentive and bonus programs including profit sharing.  The good times. 
Currently high turnover, with good reason.  Pay has actually decreased.   Benefit package is mediocre at best.  Upper management are Chinese ghosts.  Plant Leader’s management style is antiquated.  She is completely clueless when it comes to dealing with people, especially the current generation.  Front line management might be the only half decent thing about the management side of things.  
Unionized workplace,  but union is weak there.  The machine shop gets treated like the red headed step child while the foundry side reaps the rewards from the sacrifices of the machine shop.  
If you are in need of a place to make a few dollars to hold you over until your next job, wescast is the place to look.  If you want a place to earn a decent living with an opportunity to advance, wescast is not where you want to be.  

management was a complete joke. No one cares about anything there. I didn't mind the drama as I don't watch a lot of TV or argue with people much, so at least the entertainment value was at an all time high alone with most of the workers. It was even better when someone else jumped into a position where they had to make somewhat reasonable decisions. Clearly getting the job because they had seniority, not any remote set of mind or skills for the job. 
Everything was broken and bubble gum repaired as best it could be. So tasks that should have taken 20 min ends up taking two days. Most of the work was physical so you get a good workout, especially when. You get your steps in walking around the plant trying to find a supervisor or something you need.
All in all as my employment came to a rather sudden crash as the company went under. The a lot of the workers were great, some can shove it. It wasn't a dream job but the t paid the bills and saved on streaming subscriptions and a gym membership.

Do you like working mandatory overtime every single week? Oh boy have I got the job for you!

Incompetence up the ladder trickles down to you working overtime, while the higher ups have the weekend off! Such a great feeling! Maybe if they had to start coming in every single weekend they might actually try to curb it from happening.

Do you like being fairly paid for the work and responsibilities assigned to you? Find somewhere else to work. Like perhaps one of their other factories that actually have a union to enforce better wages. If you work at a non-unionized factory, you are SoL.

Job security? LOL! Not only is it automotive, which is notorious for laying people off, but this place has already laid everyone off. It's like a ghost town. On top of that, the person running place likes to threaten your job.

Funny thing is, the staff numbers are so low that they will know who posted this immediately. I just don't care anymore.

This company went above and beyond when it came to safety, benefits, wages, bonuses to name some. I would still be there if our plant didn't shut down. Some of the things they did for their employees I'm still yet to see or hear of anywhere. Very unfortunate they had to shut down the Brantford foundry. To give you an idea of how much people enjoyed this company, in 7+years I moved up 2 spots on the seniority list and the only reason that happened is 2 people took management positions.(not at the same time)

Working at Wescast wasn't horrible job, they had the stressful days and the easy days. The production workers made it a good place to be as well as some management. It wasn't until the last couple years when all the closed door meetings, lying and overall deceit started. Layoff after layoff, followed by hiring and more layoffs. They worked the remaining production staff to exhaustion both physically and mentally. Upper management kept secrets from the floor but promised the world and better days coming to only admit defeat and what seems to now be the doors closing. If they happen to start production again, I'd be in absolute shock if anyone returned to this place. HR sticks their nose where it doesn't belong and passes their jobs onto others. I personally watched too many good workers leave due to the poor upper management 

i loved this job on afternoons, coworkers were great up until the point when i went to midnights and met the management on that shift. a typical day was like this, once i got to work i would flip any trees (coated engine manifolds) on to a carousel then i would proceed to pop the caps off the tops and then patch them so that i could use a mechanized arm to lift them into a flask in the pre-compactor. once done i would fill it with sand then lift it with a crane to be placed on to a conveyer belt so i can command it with a computer to a compactor, once compacted i sent it to a burner to be burn out for an hour then  i would send to a caster to cast the parts. lastly i would place them on to a cool staging area in which they would cool for an hour before dumping.  

If it were possible I would rate this cesspool in the negative.  It went from being a family owned global leader in manifold production to a Chinese owned dead end job with virtually no future.  Senior management are more like ghosts.  HR is pretty much invisible.  They have a reputation in the community as a company that won't pay its bills without the threat of legal action.  
The employees there are more like magicians.  They manage to make quality parts with next to nothing to work with.  The maintenance department pretty much has to use bubblegum and duct tape to keep the antique machines running.  
The hardest part of the job there is trying not to throw yourself off the roof in frustration.
The most enjoyable part of the job there is punching out at the end of the day.

A typical day included well run operations meetings first thing every day and then a walk through of the facility by myself noting any situations that required attention.  Enjoyable workforce I had worked with a number of personnel at another workplace before it had shutdown.  I didn't interact with many managers as most others were mostly busy with their own situations.  Our main contact was the morning operations meetings.  The position was very much an entry level position and did not fit my experience level whatsoever.
I was able to mentor 2 practicum students from the University of Western Ontario H&S diploma program.  They were my 4th and 5th students who have gone on to good solid careers.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Production lead 3 salaries reported	$63,333 per year
Cnc operator 3 salaries reported	$19.61 per hour
Technologist 2 salaries reported	$70,000 per year
Senior financial analyst 2 salaries reported	$83,750 per year
Millwright 1 salary reported	$40.00 per hour

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