1 week Ago
John D'Agnolo, president of Unifor Local 200, talks about the implications of tariffs on auto manufacturing at the Unifor union hall in Windsor, Ont., on March 4. Dax Melmer/The Globe and Mail Union leaders representing auto workers across Ontario are condemning the stand taken by their American counterparts in support of U.
S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the vehicle industry, which have already led to layoffs in the sector. The United Auto Workers union has, for months, strongly supported Mr.
Trump ’s tariff plan, arguing that it will bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States that were lost over the past three decades following the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. The auto tariffs took effect on Thursday and apply a 25-per-cent charge to all foreign-made cars imported into the U.S.
, including Canadian ones. For imports that comply with NAFTA’s successor, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, tariffs will apply to the non-U.S.
content in the vehicle, as of May 3. With all these duties taking effect, auto industry experts and union heads are warning that cars will become more expensive for consumers, and that layoffs could ripple through the sector. Just this week, Stellantis NV said it would temporarily shutter an assembly plant in Windsor, Ont.
, affecting roughly 3,200 unionized employees. “To see UAW leadership talking about the importance of jobs coming back to the U.S.
, knowing that Canadian auto workers will be massively impacted, is a betrayal of the solidarity we had as auto unions,” said John D’Agnolo, president of Unifor Local 200 in Windsor, which represents more than 2,000 auto workers at Ford Motor Co.’s two engine plants in the border town. Mr.
D’Agnolo told The Globe and Mail that UAW president Shawn Fain’s position on tariffs was particularly hurtful given that his local and members of the UAW worked closely together in 2023 when both were renegotiating their respective collective agreements with Ford. “Their entire bargaining committee came to Windsor. We helped each throughout bargaining and we both wanted to make sure all our workers were getting a fair deal.
That relationship is now blown up.” UAW did not respond to a request for comment about its stand on the tariffs and its relationship with Unifor. Mr.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on Wednesday featured former and current auto workers, including 20 UAW members from Michigan. “They really suffered gravely,” Mr. Trump said of his auto worker supporters, before railing on about the “foreign cheaters” who had “stolen” American jobs.
One of the UAW members present at the White House event on Thursday was Chris Vitale, a former Stellantis employee and third-generation auto worker. He told The Detroit News that his Detroit-area community was hollowed out by free trade so badly that he was glad to see a “powerful man” like Mr. Trump impose tariffs on the rest of the world.
Mr. Vitale went on to add that he was not concerned about the job losses tariffs could bring to the American auto sector. “When you see American auto workers supporting this, you have to ask: are they going to really feel this way when the entire industry ultimately shuts down and the job losses hit them hard and fast? Because that will happen,” said James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, representing almost 4,000 employees at the Stellantis plant in Windsor.
The automaker announced on Thursday that it was temporarily halting production at assembly plants in Windsor and Mexico and laying off 900 workers at six U.S. factories as a result of tariffs.
The Ontario plant, which makes minivans and Dodge Chargers, will close for two weeks starting April 7. Mr. Stewart called UAW’s position on the tariffs a “short-sighted viewpoint,” saying it did not acknowledge how 30 years of free trade had fundamentally changed how American cars were made in the region.
Auto parts and unfinished cars move across the Canada-U.S.-Mexico border multiple times before turning into a finished car for sale.
“At one point, Unifor and the UAW were aligned with our messaging on free trade not being good for workers. But the system has changed, and today there is not a vehicle in the U.S.
that is 100 per cent American-made. It’s virtually impossible to undo that now.” But a not-insignificant number of American auto workers believe that tariffs will bring back the glory days of the Michigan auto industry because of what their union leaders and Mr.
Trump are saying, Mr. Stewart noted. Brian Pannebecker, the founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024, who was invited to speak at the White House on Thursday, told the audience that American auto workers will begin reaping the benefits of tariffs “three-four years down the road.
” Mr. Trump said Mr. Pannebecker understood the economy better than a lot of economists.
In Brampton, Ont., Vito Beato, president of Unifor Local 1285, which represents 3,000 auto workers, has spent the last two months reassuring his members that they will not permanently lose their jobs. But he acknowledges they are in a vulnerable position: the Stellantis factory in Brampton has been closed for electric vehicle retooling since January, 2024, and is expected to resume operations at the end of this year.
Mr. Beato thinks that could be pushed back to the end of 2026. “Right now, UAW and us, we’re not friends.
The gloves are off as far as I’m concerned.”.
