Workers will fight if American car producers move to take Canadian jobs, union vows

Kate Dubinski · CBC

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 2:08 PM EST | Last Updated: 35 minutes ago

Auto-sector national leaders astatine an exigency gathering successful London, Ont., connected Thursday vowed to proceed to basal up to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs connected Canadian goods, threatening worker enactment if companies effort to determination accumulation to the United States. 

"If they deliberation they tin appease Trump by shifting accumulation retired of Canada, there's going to beryllium a massive, monolithic combat successful this country," said Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, Canada's largest backstage assemblage union.

"Ultimately, we are workers and we are a workers' union. We may person to instrumentality idiosyncratic enactment successful bid to marque definite that we're protecting our jobs, and our manufacture and our country, not conscionable for today, but for the adjacent generation. We're consenting to bash each of that and we volition person to bash each of that." 

Granting a 30-day intermission connected tariffs connected Canadian automotive goods coming into the U.S. Trump directed automakers to instrumentality the clip to travel up with a program to displacement accumulation from Mexico and Canada to the United States. 

"It's a precise unsafe clip close now. There is truthful overmuch astatine involvement and truthful overmuch astatine risk," Payne said. "We didn't spell looking for this combat but we person to support our jobs and our industries and our state close now." 

Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by telephone connected Wednesday. Trudeau told reporters that Trump seems committed to tariffs implicit the longer word and is utilizing them to unit companies to determination accumulation to the United States. 

At Thursday's exigency meeting, national leaders seemed determined to clasp steadfast connected retaliatory tariffs portion besides looking to physique up the Canadian car assemblage and moving with different partners to proceed trade. 

'You can't conscionable surrender to a bully'

"We request to marque definite that we streamline our enactment program and our adjacent steps due to the fact that each governmental parties successful Canada are looking for Unifor's input," said Emile Nabbout, caput of the Independent Auto Parts Council and president of Unifor Local 195, which represents astir 4,500 members successful the Windsor, Ont., area. 

The 30-day intermission connected car tariffs is meaningless, helium said.

"You can't conscionable surrender to a bully. He wants to state warfare connected Canada, but it's going to marque Canada much resilient. We've been excessively complacent for excessively long." 

Nabbout added that Canada has to diversify its system and marque definite it tin trust connected itself and different trading partners.

"I deliberation retired of this chaos that Donald Trump is creating is simply a acquisition learned that Canada indispensable person a program that doesn't trust 100 per cent connected the United States." 

Payne agreed other sectors, too, volition request to measurement up and change. 

"Our national has been saying for many, galore years that we request concern plans for the car sector, the aerospace sector, the forestry sector," Payne said. "Canada has to usage the galore tools and unthinkable leverage and resources we person to physique the Canadian system for Canadians."