Auto Workers' Response to Carney Government's Protection of Canadian Jobs
Stellantis plant in Brampton October 4, 2025, demanding
production stay in Canada
The Carney government and its ministers are running around staging photo ops with sectors of industrial workers they claim to be protecting against the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and Canada's counter-tariffs. Meanwhile, auto workers are demanding the government protect Canadian jobs. Workers in the auto industry and industries that supply parts to the auto industry are facing layoffs, downsizing and even the complete closure of factories as foreign automakers move production out of Canada to ensure their interests in the face of U.S. tariffs.
Over the past few years the federal government and the government of Ontario have handed over millions of dollars in public funds to the auto monopolies. They claim that in doing so they are protecting Canadian jobs because, in some cases, these handouts come with promises to keep production in Canada. The bitter experience of Canadian workers is that governments do not hold these monopolies to account. They repeat the neo-liberal mantra that corporations have to protect the interests of their shareholders. They say they are in no way beholden to the workers and communities in Canada and Quebec where they operate despite all the incentives governments provide them in the name of jobs and other malarkey. When push comes to shove, the "guarantees" governments secure are a fraud to cover up pay-the-rich schemes and governments do nothing to enforce them.
Workers at the Stellantis plant in Brampton, Ontario have been out of work since December 2023, when they were laid off. At the time they were told that production was being halted and the plant was to undergo a 24-month retooling to transition to electric vehicle (EV) production to make the Jeep Compass. Prior to the shutdown, the Stellantis plant produced the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300.
However, in February, after the announcement by the Trump administration of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian assembled vehicles, the retooling was stopped for what the company called an "eight-week pause." Stellantis has refused to meet with the union to discuss its plans. The "pause" continues to this day, with no end in sight, no explanation from the company and no government action to recoup the large sums of money it gave Stellantis. The shutdown impacts 3,000 workers at the Brampton plant and more than a thousand workers in factories that supply it, who are reaching the end of their Employment Insurance payments at this time.
The workers held a rally at the plant on October 4 along with workers from other auto plants and other unions, standing united in their demand that the federal and Ontario governments protect jobs and hold the auto monopolies to account. At the rally, local union leaders and national leaders of Unifor, which represents some of the workers at the Stellantis plant, spoke. They called on Stellantis to keep its pledge and for governments to support the workers. Both the president of Unifor Local 1285, Vito Beato, and Unifor National President Lana Payne defended the workers, with Payne saying, "We need political leaders to stand with us and to fight with us. Our members here in Brampton were promised a bright future. Since February that future has been put on hold."
Premier Doug Ford also spoke at the rally. He did not say a word about what his government will do to enforce the conditions that Stellantis agreed to when his government and the Trudeau government pledged $15 billion to support EV battery production by Stellantis and others in 2023. The agreement made with the governments of Canada and Ontario on July 6, 2023 to provide public funds for the production of EV batteries, included the condition that "Stellantis will uphold its existing commitments in Canada and Ontario, including a production mandate at its plant in Brampton, Ontario."
Ford, who presents himself as "Captain Canada," bombastically told the rally: "Our government will continue to protect the workers, to protect their jobs, to protect the communities, and we will always have your backs." He said that he had spoken to the CEO of Stellantis to urge him to open the plant and get the workers working. He called on Prime Minister Carney -- given he was traveling to the U.S. to meet with President Trump on October 7 -- not to "roll over" but to stand up to Trump's bullying. He puffed up his chest and said that he has been talking to the premiers of the provinces and territories to appeal to them to buy vehicles built in Ontario.
As for counting on Carney's not rolling over for Trump, Carney's performance at the White House speaks for itself. Here is what he said: "You kindly hosted me and some of my colleagues a few months ago and I said at the time you were, are, a transformative president and since then transformation in the economy, unprecedented commitments of NATO partners to defence spending, peace from India, Pakistan through to Azerbaijan and Armenia, disabling Iran as a force of terror and now, and I'm running out of time but this in many respects is the most important, [Trump interrupts with 'the merger of Canada and the United States' and everyone laughs] ... that wasn't where I was going. No, on this solemn day of commemoration of the horrific attacks of October 7, for the first time in decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years, this prospect of peace that you've made possible, Canada stands foursquare behind those efforts and will do whatever we can to support you."
Carney thus stands directly against the resounding demand of the people for a complete end to the Gaza genocide and occupation of Palestine. When it comes to protecting jobs, it is crucial to fight for a change in the direction of the economy and renewal of the political process to empower the people to become the decision-makers. The workers' security lies in the fight for their rights and the rights of all at home and abroad. Illusions that cartel party governments have workers' interests at heart or can be relied on are harmful. Their aim is to block the nation-building project of the workers for a sovereign and self-reliant economy founded on meeting the needs of the people, production primarily for domestic use and for trade with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and benefit.
This article was published in
Volume 55
Number 10 - October 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/M550108.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca