‘Won’t back down’ — Unifor hosts Windsor rally to protest U.S. tariffs

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Facing “the fight of our lives” when it comes to Canadian jobs, Unifor national president Lana Payne rallied workers in Windsor on Saturday with a blunt message for U.S. President Donald Trump: “We won’t back down.”

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Busloads of workers from across southwestern Ontario rolled into Windsor to join hundreds more at the Riverfront Festival Plaza in a show of solidarity at a Protect Canadian Jobs rally organized by the country’s largest private sector union.

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“We did not spend all this time winning historic collective agreements, winning anti-scab legislation, winning worker power all across this country, in order to have Donald Trump destroy it,” Payne told workers.

“Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”

Payne highlighted the union’s deep connections to Windsor, where a major labour victory helped define its future — the 1945 Ford Motor Company workers’ strike that secured union rights for “every single” worker in Canada.

Caught up in Trump’s trade war, she warned the union is now facing “the fight of our lives.”

“When we fight together, we can win together,” Payne said. “Let’s make a promise to each other today … let’s stand together, let’s fight together, and let’s lift each other up.

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“We have jobs to protect, we have a country to defend, and we have a great union to see us through it all — so let’s f–ing go.”

Saturday’s rally drew New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, who didn’t address the crowd but stopped to meet and speak with workers. Several federal election candidates, local MPPs and Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles also turned out in support.

James Stewart, president of Unifor Local 444, had a message for those representatives of all political stripes, urging whoever wins the federal election to push back against escalating tariffs.

“You have to defend our jobs, you have to defend our country, and you have to defend our industry,” said Stewart, whose Local 444 represents thousands of local union members, including at the Windsor Assembly Plant.

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“You have to make sure you deal with them in a strong hand and always look for a resolve to the tariff problem.”

Ardis Snow, chairperson at the Stellantis Brampton Assembly Plant, told the Star “there’s a lot of doom and gloom” among his members worried about the impact of tariffs.

The Brampton plant has been down since December 2023 as it undergoes retooling under terms of Unifor’s 2023 collective agreement with Stellantis and support from both the provincial and federal governments.

“My members are concerned,” Snow said. “People are concerned (whether) the plant is going to come back up.

“We have the protections in our collective agreement plus the commitments through our federal and provincial governments. I understand their concerns but we’re going to be okay in the long run.”

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Asked about the automakers in Detroit, Snow warned they should never think they can pull a single piece of equipment out of a Canadian plant.

“No matter what we’ve got to do, we’re going to protect those jobs inside that facility,” said Snow, adding that Trump’s idea of taking back automotive jobs is false. “They’ve always been Canadian jobs — we’ve built automobiles in Canada for over 100 years.

“It’s our industry as much as it is his. He just needs to take a look and see how intertwined our two countries are in the auto sector.”

For Ian Lindsey, a retired Chrysler worker from Windsor, Saturday’s rally was about standing up for the labour movement and standing proud for Canada. 

“We’re in a tough time right now and we’ve got to stick together,” Lindsey told the Star. “I am really looking forward to this Canadian movement.

“I think this is the perfect opportunity to make our country stronger.

“I hope it keeps going.”

mholmeshill@postmedia.com

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