A spokesman for the Canadian Auto Workers says a new severance pay offer it's received from the owner of two Windsor auto parts plants that closed last March is too low.

Eighty former employees who worked at the Aradco and Aramco plants before they were closed say they are owed $2.4 million in severance, termination and vacation pay.

Former employees of U.S.-based Catalina Precision Products protest outside Comerica Bank in Detroit, Mich. on Nov. 24. The employees say they're owed $2.4M in severance pay and will fight until they get it. (Sandy Tymczak/CBC)Catalina Precision Products owns the two shuttered facilities. It has offered to pay an additional $60,000 in severance on top of the $400,000 the former employees already received.

That works out to roughly $750 per worker, instead of the $30,000 the workers say they are owed.

"The offer is very miniscule, and quite frankly, in my opinion, it was insulting," said Gerry Farnham, president of Local 195. "They're way out of the ballpark."

Farnham said talks will continue between lawyers for the CAW and the U.S.-based company.

Catalina and its largest creditor, Detroit-based Comerica Bank, want to auction off the equipment.

Lawyers have told the union it will receive 48 hours notice before that happens. Farnham said the workers will keep monitoring the plants to make sure the equipment isn't removed.

CAW members staged a protest outside the Comerica Bank office in downtown Detroit Tuesday to protest the bank's involvement with Catalina.