The federal NDP are calling for immediate policy changes in light of Stellantis' decision to pause production at the Windsor Assembly Plant (WAP), citing Trump's tariffs.
The WAP produces the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, parts for the Chrysler Grand Caravan, and builds the all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona.
As of April 7, the WAP and its feeder plants will go dark for at least two weeks.
4,500 WAP workers and 1,250 feeder plant workers represented by Unifor Local 444 will be out of work. Unifor Local 195 says 700 to 800 of their members may also be affected.
The NDP say if elected, their government would use every dollar collected from retaliatory tariffs to directly support impacted workers in industries like auto manufacturing. In addition, they say they have committed to exempting Canadian-made cars and trucks from the GST.
NDP incumbent in Windsor West Brian Masse says in his role as prime minister, Mark Carney, is failing to act on behalf of affected workers.
"[Carney] could actually, administratively right now, change the employment insurance system, he could have waived the GST, he could have increased the EV rebate," Masse said. "All those things are available to him right now as I speak, and not a single thing has come out to support these workers, and they've been living with this over their head for a long period of time. So we finally see it come to repercussion right now, but does that change the response? I don't know."
Masse says Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford are not providing any supports or incentives for the Windsor-built Pacifica minivan that would keep workers on the job.
"They should have known that for months going into work that we've got your back, not just in terms of them saying it, or wearing a stupid hat, it actually should be with public policy saying, you know what, we're going to do an EV incentive, so if you want to actually buy a Windsor-built minivan, there's going to be a $15,000 minimum credit for it, $10,000 from the federal government, $5,000, at least from the provincial government or more," said Masse.
Masse says the current approach is not working.
"Now they're going to actually rely on employment insurance. which is paid by the company and paid by the actual worker, not by the government, and government will do tariffs and soak in all that money, and it will go to Ottawa, that's totally unacceptable," he said.
Masse says an NDP government will also stop U.S.-based corporations from stripping valuable assets from Canadian plants to stop companies from leaving workers behind and meaningfully improve employment insurance for those who need it, by raising the benefit rate to 66 per cent.
Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore Liberal incumbent Irek Kusmierczyk says a Liberal government would continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with auto workers.
"We will win this economic war that Donald Trump has brought to our shores, and we've already seen with the strong counter tariffs that we've put forward, and the strong measures to protect workers and protect their jobs, But again, our focus is on fighting Donald Trump's tariffs, on protecting our workers, and this is also the time to build as well," Kusmierczyk said.
Kusmierczyk says he's hearing from voters that there's a strong positive energy surrounding Liberal leader Mark Carney.
"As the leader that will lead us through this crisis, and he has the chops, he has the experience, he's done it in the past, he's just calm and confident, he is the adult in the room," said Kusmierczyk.
Kusmierczyk says residents want a federal government who will continue to keep building upon the investments brought to the region.
"$16-billion of investment to this region, the most of any community in Canada, that includes the Gordie Howe Bridge, it includes the battery plant, new trains, new busses, new infrastructure, new housing, they want us to continue to build on that," he said.
On Thursday, Carney announced that Canada would be matching the U.S. approach to tariffs - with 25 per cent tariffs on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with the Canada-US-Mexico-Agreement.