Chrysler Canada extended its production shutdown to a second Ontario plant today as a parts shortage forced the automaker to idle assembly operations at its Brampton car plant.

The company asked workers on the afternoon shift at the plant, just northwest of Toronto, not to report to work due to a parts shortage caused by a labor dispute at one of its suppliers, a Chrysler Canada spokeswoman said.

This followed a similar move at its minivan plant in Windsor on Wednesday.

"We have a parts shortage at one of our suppliers so we are just trying to get that resolved," Mary Gauthier said. "We are working on it even as we speak."

Gauthier said Chrysler expects to have the problem resolved by Friday and has asked the afternoon shift to report to work as usual. She would not comment on how many vehicles were affected by the move.

The Brampton plant, which makes Dodge Challengers and Chargers, has about 3,100 employees.

The Windsor plant makes three minivans: the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan and Volkswagen Routan.

Other plants could be affected in turn if the situation is not resolved, a spokesman said.

Chrysler is working to relocate the tooling from an unnamed supplier to its own casting plant in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, spokesman Dave Elshoff said.

On March 17, workers occupied a Chrysler supplier in Windsor after the automaker attempted to seize its tooling. But that action did not idle the minivan assembly plant.