James Stewart: You don’t protect auto industry jobs by sacrificing them

By James Stewart 

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In his column, published on Sept. 5, Randall Denley argues that Canada should be prepared to sacrifice our auto assembly industry to secure a trade deal with Donald Trump. 

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From Windsor, where generations of workers have built some of the best vehicles in the world, I couldn’t disagree more. 

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You don’t strengthen Canada by surrendering our ability to build vehicles. And you certainly don’t protect Canada’s auto-parts industry by eliminating the assembly plants at the heart of the  supply chain. 

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The idea that we can somehow separate Canada’s auto industry into one part worth saving and  another part we can afford to lose fundamentally misunderstands how this industry works. 

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Assembly plants don’t exist in isolation. Neither do parts plants. 

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They are part of an enormously complex and integrated supply chain supporting tens of thousands of workers, hundreds of businesses and communities across Ontario and Canada. 

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Windsor Assembly alone supports far more jobs than the people who walk through its gates  every day. Those jobs extend into parts plants, logistics, skilled trades, research and engineering, universities and colleges, social services, and others throughout our community. 

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Take away assembly and you don’t strengthen that ecosystem. You put it at risk. 

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Denley also describes vehicle assembly as somehow not truly Canadian because automakers that assemble vehicles in Canada are foreign-owned. 

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Tell that to the generations of Canadian workers who built this industry over 100 years ago. 

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The companies may be headquartered elsewhere, but these are Canadian workers building vehicles in Canadian plants with Canadian-made parts. They pay Canadian taxes, support Canadian communities and have developed generations of manufacturing expertise that countries around the world compete aggressively to attract. 

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That industrial capacity matters. 

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Surrendering our ability to manufacture one of the world’s most sophisticated consumer products would move us in precisely the wrong direction. 

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Our union will never accept the view that another country’s president decides which Canadian industries are permitted to survive. Neither should Canadians. 

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Canada is mired in difficult trade negotiations with the U.S., and it’s in everyone’s interest we stick to a unified, all-party Team Canada approach. Not only is Denley presenting a surrender position, but he also parrots the position of U.S. cabinet officials. That’s unacceptable. 

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There is a legitimate conversation to be had about government incentives, corporate accountability and ensuring that companies receiving public money live up to their commitments. Workers understand that better than anyone. 

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Our members in Brampton certainly do. 

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More than 2,000 workers there remain laid off after Stellantis moved planned Jeep Compass production from Brampton to the United States. Those workers and their families don’t need anyone explaining the consequences of corporate decisions or American trade policy to them.