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A Canadian furniture manufacturer is shutting
down a facility in its home country and moving
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those operations to the US, but the company and
the workers affected by the move are at odds
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over where their tariffs are to blame.
The union representing employees at the Prepack
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Manufacturing Limited plant in Delta, British
Columbia announced the facility’s impending
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closure last week and said that its production
would shift to a facility in North Carolina
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instead.
The national president of Unifor,
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Canada.
Largest private sector union suggested in that
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announcement that PrePA used uncertainty over
trade in North America to make the move amid
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the Trump administration’s unpredictable tariff
announcements.
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The company, the union noted, cited an altered
economic environment in its decision.
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Pre-PAC officials, however, told a local
publication that the environment in question
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long predated new concerns about tariffs.
North Carolina CEO Nick Boykis told business in
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Vancouver.
I simply closer to its customer base and a
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persistently difficult market for furniture
makers in North America.
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Prepa, founded in Vancouver in 1979, opened the
nearby Delta facility in 2005.
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In 2019, however, the company was acquired by
Toronto private equity firm TorQuest Partners.
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The North Carolina plant was subsequently
opened in 2021.
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The closure of the Delta plant will result in
the elimination of 170 jobs,
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the union said.
Unifor officials added that they would call for
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a boycott of the company’s products nationwide,
joining ongoing protests of US made products
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both in Canada and abroad.
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I’m Andy Zal.
This is manufacturing now.