U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs are blamed for a two-week shutdown of the Windsor Assembly Plant and its feeder plants.
Unifor Local 444 — in a social media post late yesterday — says several factors are at play but the primary driver behind the decision by Stellantis to pause production is Trump's tariffs announcement.
The plants will be idled starting Monday, April 7.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens says he's not shocked to hear Stellantis is shutting down the Windsor Assembly Plant for two weeks.
"Ultimately the global chaos caused by this global tariff war by the United States is not good for everyone including those of us here in Windsor," says Dilkens.
Dilkens believes this is just the first of many layoffs and disruptions to the auto sector in Canada and the United States and feels auto manufacturers will be looking at all the components in vehicles now.
"They are looking to see what the impact and the cost of construction will be to put these vehicles together recognizing that there are the better part 30,000 different components that go into the manufacturer of a single vehicle," says Dilkens
He says Windsor will need some support from the federal government.
"We're going to be really concerned about what happens in our backyard and we have worked so hard, over so many years to really change the conversation and we were on such an upward trajectory and I still have a lot of hope and optimism that we're going to be able to continue that trajectory," he says.
25 per cent tariffs previously announced by Trump on automobile imports went into effect early this morning.
Unifor says the tariffs have created uncertainty across the entire auto industry and more changes to the schedule are expected in the coming weeks.