‘Gaslighting’ — Stellantis idles Windsor Assembly, blames Trump tariffs

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Windsor’s largest private-sector employer has become an early casualty of U.S. President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs, with thousands of Windsor Assembly Plant workers informed they’re off the job April 7.

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Automobile manufacturer Stellantis tells the Star the giant facility will be idled for two weeks beginning Monday.

The pain won’t be limited to Windsor as the company also confirmed it will be laying off workers at five U.S. plants that supply Windsor Assembly. Stellantis announced it was also idling facilities in Mexico due to the 25-per-cent auto tariffs set to start Thursday.

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“Stellantis continues to assess the effects of the recently announced U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles and will continue to engage with the U.S. administration on these policy changes,” said Lou Ann Gosselin, Stellantis’s head of communications for Canada.

“Immediate actions we must take include temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants, which will have an impact to several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations.

“We will be temporarily pausing production at the Windsor Assembly Plant for two weeks (the weeks of April 7 and 14) with operations resuming the week of April 21.”

The layoffs across three nations illustrate just how integrated the North American automotive industry has become. The five American plants impacted are in Michigan and Indiana.

“As a result of pausing production at several of Stellantis’s Canadian and Mexican plants, there will be temporary layoffs at the Warren Stamping and Sterling Stamping plants as well as the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant,” Gosselin said.

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“The company will continue to monitor the situation to assess whether further action is required.”

Unifor Local 444 president James Stewart said between 3,000 and 3,500 workers will be directly impacted at Windsor Assembly. Skilled trades will continue working at the plant.

There are also more than 1,250 employees at the five main feeder plants for Windsor Assembly that face layoffs now.

“For every Windsor Assembly plant worker, it results in around eight workers being impacted,” Stewart told the Star. “We have our Tier I feeder plants, but then we have smaller places like Windsor Machine, which sends us parts, along with other Tier II and III factories.”

Stewart said the company advised him of the shutdown at 7 p.m. Wednesday. He and Unifor national officials had already begun discussions with federal and provincial government officials Thursday morning on the next steps. Stewart said he expected to talk further with Stellantis representatives.

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“The company told us straight up, there were a few factors, but the deciding factor was Trump’s announcement,” Stewart said. “This is frustrating.

“You usually have some control in negotiations, but this is out of our control. All we can do is react, but we’ll use every tool we have.”

Unifor Local 200 president John D’Agnolo told the Star he doesn’t expect Ford Motor Company to alter its production schedule at its two Windsor engine plants.

“The company is going to have to just eat it (tariffs),” said D’Agnolo, who is also Unifor’s national auto chair.

“They need the engines. They’ve told us to just keep making them.”

The Essex Engine and Windsor Annex plants manufacture the powerplants for Ford’s F-series pickup trucks and the Mustang.

D’Agnolo said the problem for the automakers, whose operations he expects will grind to a halt in a few weeks or less if the tariffs stay in place, is that their supply chains won’t be able to handle the financial stress of tariffs.

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“In that range of 25 per cent, that’ll kill those companies,” D’Agnolo said. “Ford is going to have to eat their portion too. That’s not sustainable, their (profit) margins are too small.

“He (Trump) has put these great American companies in a real bad position. Corporations are powerful. I’m surprised they haven’t got together yet and dropped the hammer on him (Trump).”

While the Canadian auto, lumber, steel and aluminum industries got no relief, Canada did avoid any new reciprocal tariffs announced Wednesday by Trump.

Canada needs the strongest possible response

The rest of the world now faces tariffs, which range from a baseline of 10 per cent to as high as 50 per cent.

“Trump is gaslighting us, wanting us to be grateful for not having reciprocal tariffs imposed on Canada while he tries to pick off our domestic industries one by one,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a statement. “We won’t fall for it.

“(Wednesday’s) announcement offers absolutely no relief to Canadian workers who are ready to fight for every job, every plant, every community in this U.S.-initiated trade war.”

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In a submission on policy suggestions to the federal government this week, Unifor urged strong targeted tariffs on goods with alternate or domestic sources that won’t impact Canadian consumers. It also urged a 25 per cent tariff on imported U.S. vehicles, bumping that up to 100 per cent on vehicles produced in states with ‘Right to Work’ laws.

However, Unifor requested auto companies with a production footprint in Canada should get an exemption to counter tariffs.

Among several other suggestions, the union also proposed statutory penalties on companies that attempt to move productive assets stateside in response to ‘illegal U.S. tariffs.’

“No one can deny what Trump is trying to do: divert investment away from Canada, steal Canadian jobs, and threaten our sovereignty,” Payne said.

“The reality is that this trade war is just getting started and Canada is still feeling the pain of U.S. trade penalties disproportionately worse than any country in the world. That’s why Canada needs the strongest possible response to these tariffs while we work towards building a more resilient Canadian economy.”

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The auto tariffs will impact both the new and used car market, said Baris Akyurek, Auto Trader vice-president of insights and intelligence.

“We have already seen a shift in demand to used cars and the pull forward (of new car purchases) impact,” Akyurek said.

“(Used car) prices usually start the year higher and decline as the year goes on. Used car prices in March were up .3 per cent month over month. Last March, prices declined 2.1 per cent.”

Akyurek said there is currently a 71-day supply of new vehicles as automakers bumped up production to beat the tariff deadlines. However, the used car market is constricted with the loss of production of 1.5 million vehicles during COVID.

He added there won’t be much respite for consumers looking for bargains among producers of non-tariffed vehicles in Canada.

“Demand in the new car segment, it will shift to non-tariffed cars,” Akyurek said.

“That demand will push the prices of those cars up, too. Regardless of where the car is manufactured, there will be an impact on new cars.”

However, Akyurek said he doesn’t expect to see the 21.7-per-cent increase in used-car prices the COVID pandemic brought.

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