‘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, and thousands of Windsor parliamentary factory workers told them that it was April 7 work.

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Automaker Stellantis told Star that the giant factory will be idle for two weeks starting Monday.

The pain will not be limited to Windsor, as the company also confirmed it will lay off employees in five American plants that supply Windsor parliament. Stellantis announced it is also in Mexico’s idle facilities due to a 25% car tariff scheduled to begin Thursday.

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“Stellantis continues to assess the impact of recently announced U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles and will continue to interact with the U.S. government in these policy changes,” said Lou Ann Gosselin, head of communications at Stellantis.

“The immediate action we must take includes temporarily suspending production at some of our gathering plants in Canada and Mexico, which will have an impact on several of our U.S. powertrains and stamping facilities that support these actions.

“We will temporarily suspend production at the Windsor Assembly Plant for two weeks (April 7 and 14), and operations resumed for one week on April 21.”

The layoffs in three countries illustrate the integration of the North American automotive industry. The five types of affected U.S. factories in Michigan and Indiana will temporarily fire 900 workers.

“The Cocomo Transmission Plant and Cocomo Foundry will temporarily lay off employees due to the suspension of production of several plants in Stralandis in Canada and Mexico, Warren stamps and pure stamping plants, as well as Indiana transmission plants,” Gosselin said.

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

Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart said Windsor Parliament will directly affect 3,000 to 3,500 workers. Skilled industries will continue to work in factories.

Five major feeding plants now facing layoffs, and more than 1,250 employees.

“For every Windsor assembly plant worker, about eight workers are affected,” Stewart told the Star. “We have the Itier I feeding plant, but then we have smaller places like the Windsor machine that will bring us parts, as well as other II and III plants.”

Stewart said the company informed him of closing at 7 p.m. Wednesday. He and unified state officials have begun discussions with federal and provincial government officials on Thursday morning about the next step. Stewart said he expected to have further conversations with the representative of Stelantis.

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“The company directly tells us that there are several factors, but the decisive factor is the news announced by Trump,” Stewart said. “It’s frustrating.

“You usually have some control in negotiations, but that’s not what we can control. All we can do is react, but we will use all the tools we have.”

Unifor Local 200 President John D’Agnolo told Star that he does not want Ford Motor Company to change its production plans at its two Windsor engine plants.

“The company will have to eat only (tariffs),” said D’Agnolo, who is also the president of the national autos of Unifor.

“They need the engine. They tell us to keep making them.”

The Essex Engine and Windsor Accessories Factory produces power units for Ford’s F-Series pickup trucks and Mustangs.

D’Agnolo said the problem for automakers is that he hopes that if the tariffs remain for a few weeks or less, their supply chains will not be able to cope with the financial pressures of the tariffs.

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“In the 25% range, this will kill these companies,” Dagnolo said. “Ford will also have to eat up parts of itself. It’s unsustainable and their (profit) profit is too small.

“He (Trump) put these great American companies in a real bad state. The companies are strong. I’m surprised they haven’t gotten together yet and put the hammer on him (Trump).”

While there is no relief from the Canadian auto, wood, steel and aluminum industries, Canada does avoid any new reciprocity tariffs announced by Trump on Wednesday.

Canada needs the strongest response

Now, the rest of the world faces tariffs, ranging from 10% to up to 50% of the benchmark range.

“Trump is cheering on, hoping we would like to thank Canada for not having reciprocity tariffs on Canada, while he is trying to pick our family industry one by one.” “We won’t fall for it.

“The announcement (Wednesday) is absolutely uncomfortable for Canadian workers who are preparing to fight for this trade war, every plant, every community.”

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In its submission to the federal government this week, Unifor urged targeted tariffs on goods that have alternative or domestic resources that do not affect Canadian consumers. It also urged a 25% tariff on imported U.S. vehicles, which can reach up to 100% of vehicles produced in states with “right to work” laws.

However, Unifor requires auto companies with production footprints in Canada to deal with tariffs.

Among several other recommendations, the union also proposed statutory fines for companies trying to transfer productive assets under “illegal U.S. tariffs.”

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

“The reality is that this trade war has just begun and Canada still feels the pain of U.S. trade penalties are worse than any country in the world. That’s why Canada needs to respond the strongest to these tariffs as we work to build a more resilient Canadian economy.”

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Baris Akyurek, vice president of insight and intelligence, said automatic tariffs will affect the new and used car markets.

“We have seen changes in demand for used cars and the driving effect[of new car purchases],” Akyurek said.

“(Used Cars) prices usually start in one year and fall with the duration of the year. Used Cars prices rose 0.3% in March. Last March, prices fell 2.1%.”

Akyurek said there is currently a 71-day supply of new vehicles as automakers hit production to beat the tariff deadline. However, the used car market is limited by production losses of 1.5 million vehicles.

He added that consumers looking for cheaper among Canadian non-propaganda car manufacturers won’t have much respite.

“Demand in the new automotive sector will shift to non-tariff vehicles,” Akyurek said.

“This demand will also drive the price of these cars up. Regardless of where the cars are produced, it will have an impact on the new car.”

However, Akyurek said he did not expect used cars to rise by 21.7% from the COVID-19 pandemic.

dwaddell@postmedia.com

twitter.com/winstarwaddell

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