A solidarity message from Canada on the UAW and auto tariffs

Fellow Workers,

I want to take this opportunity to extend to you warmest greetings and solidarity and, particularly, deep appreciation for your engagement in an action in solidarity with your sisters and brothers in Unifor as our members rally against the tariffs being imposed by the neanderthal billionaire in the White House.

Tariffs intrinsically pit workers in one country against workers in other countries and are ostensibly designed to provide jobs for some workers at the direct expense of other workers; something we must all emphatically reject and actively oppose.

The object of Trump’s tariffs with respect to the auto industry could hardly be more clear. They are designed to ostensibly return auto and auto parts jobs to the U.S. by putting Canadian and Mexican auto and auto parts workers out of work. Earlier this week, Trump made this very clear when he stated that the U.S. has no need for vehicles produced in Canada.

If Trump’s auto tariffs were to end the sale of vehicles built in Canada in the U.S., in all likelihood, every Canadian auto assembly plant will be closed and many, if not all, auto parts plants would be closed as well. The workers employed in these plants will be permanently laid off and the communities they are located in will be decimated. Much of southern Ontario will become an economic wasteland.

That is why it is so important and commendable for you to stand with us to stop these tariffs and prevent this from happening. And make no mistake about it, little, if anything, will be gained by American auto workers if this happens particularly insofar as, historically, auto production in Canada was never established and continued at the expense of American workers.

Likewise, it would not stop the relentless downsizing of the workforce in the American auto industry.

It would not prevent the massive job losses that will result from the transition to electrical vehicles.

The auto bosses will continue to attack your incomes and your jobs, as they always have throughout the history of the North American auto industry, given their insatiable drive for profits and, in the meantime, you will lose any prospect of forging unity and solidarity between auto and auto parts workers in our two countries and with auto and auto parts workers in Mexico; the very thing which could do the most for all of us in terms of protecting our jobs and improving our livelihoods.

Simply stated, Trump’s auto tariffs aimed against Canada and Mexico are exactly what all of us, in all three countries, do not need.

That is why we must all fight in a common fight to stop them and to support each other.

We must all fight together to advance our common struggles against the auto bosses and go back on the offensive together as one.

Then together we can fight to win!

Featured Image credit: Rathika Sitsabaiesan; modified by Tempest.