National Rubber Technologies

360 degree motion sensors are not ideal. The property itself is gated off, and there are people living in the second floor of the commercial buildings across from the plant. In fact, when I tried to climb up the mechanical gate entrance, a couple came out to see what was happening, making us leave in a hurry.

KN Rubber LLC is the owner of the massive property on 35 Cawthra road - National Rubber Technologies. The factory is impressive in scale, being approximately 178,000 square feet. The building itself has seen some wear and tear which is unsurprising as it has been around for over a century, being built in 1901.

This factory has been the subject of controversy over recent years, featuring underpaid workers and greedy corporations. In 2021, National Rubber wanted to cut down on expenses. Naturally, that meant completely cutting off severance pay and replacing vacation days with percentage pay, resulting in forced overtime. It totalled out to be a 63% clawback, which is insanity in today’s day and age. On the flipside, the new “incentive” rolled out for the employees was a $0.25 pay increase per year, which would not even match inflation. Oh, and to get that bonus? The workers need to have perfect attendance, down to the hour. The cherry on top is the worker’s salaries, who make less than $20/hour, despite some of them having worked for the company for decades.

Unsurprisingly, the workers were not happy National Rubber’s proposed contract, and the worker’s refused the company’s demands. Instead of the workers striking, it was the company that retaliated. How? Complete lockout without pay until the workers agreed to their demands. And the way the workers found out wasn’t through an email or message. They showed up to work one day, only to find the company had barricaded the doors and locked the facility, ensuring nobody gets in. Great communication tbh. The company also threatened to move production elsewhere or even completely shut down the facility if the workers didn’t agree to their terms.

This only scratches the surface of the worker’s woes. On hot days, the workers have to work into temperatures that reach 45° C. The workload has also significantly increased for the employees, as the company laid off over 450 workers in recent years, going from over 500 workers to less than 50—all to “cut costs”. All the while, the factory’s level of production continued to increase during this time, despite the shrinking staff. Clearly, this wasn’t going to be a recipe for success. Between 2012 to 2019, there were a total of 111 injury claims. Yikes. Broken bones, burns, lost fingers, lost eyes, lost hands and more were victims of the unsafe conditions. A worker who worked for the company for decades stated:

““No one who works here comes out normal,” he said. “They’ve taken our skin, our limbs, our sweat and our blood.”

This grisly statement alone is quite the red flag. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the worst-case scenario occurred in 2023. A worker was critically injured while attempting to clear a blockage from a SBR granulator machine, designed to break pieces of rubber into smaller chunks. Despite the facts of the injury not being public, one can imagine that it was a gruesome injury given the nature of the incident. An investigation was carried out by the provincial government, which found National Rubber Technologies to be responsible for violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and the company was fined $55,000 following a guilty plea in court.

National Rubber Technologies shut down at the end of 2024, permanently laying off all employees. Due to the severance cuts, employees did not receive money or benefits after being let go. It was not publicly disclosed the reason for ceasing operations.

Wow.

Absolutely massive building