'Very scary right now': How Windsor's autoworkers are handling a tariff-induced layoff
'This is a very different time,' one autoworker says
Household chores, spring cleaning, and resting — that's how some local autoworkers who are off the job this week are spending their time.
But in the back of their minds, anxiety about their uncertain future hangs heavy.
"This giant back and forth, and this not knowing about what's coming next, it's been really frustrating, upsetting, unnerving, like the whole gamut of emotions," said Derek Gungle, who has worked at Stellantis for more than 10 years.
U.S. President Donald Trump's 25 per cent auto tariffs sent immediate shockwaves through the industry last week, and the nearly 100-year-old Windsor Assembly Plant was among the first facilities hit.
Stellantis has temporarily shuttered the plant, as well as others in the U.S. in Mexico, while the company assesses the tariff damage. In Windsor, more than 3,000 workers at the factory, which assembles the Pacifica minivan and Dodge Charger Daytona, are laid off until April 21.
The company said Thursday there were no changes to the plan to resume operations that day.
But some workers say they fear there will be more hard times ahead. Trump has argued the tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Industry experts have warned, however, that tariffs on North America's profoundly interconnected auto sector could damage it beyond repair.
"Working in auto, we're used to layoffs from time to time, especially for retooling and whatnot," Gungle said. "But this is a very different time."
Trump's constantly changing trade measures and rhetoric have sparked chaos in global financial markets. The unpredictability — and what it means for Canada's automotive capital long-term — has been one of the hardest things for Gungle and other autoworkers to handle as Trump has escalated his trade war in recent months.
"At times it could be, you know, at eight in the morning, there's an announcement by noon, there's another announcement by four and there's a complete shift in policy altogether," Gungle said.
"It's been an emotional roller-coaster for the last probably four months," he said.
Trump's latest pivot came on Wednesday, when he sparked confusion by announcing some tariff reprieve for a number of countries — but not Canada.
Denis Desaulniers, who has worked at the Windsor plant for 31 years, is no stranger to uncertainty.
"It's the life of an auto worker," he said. "It's up and down all the way through your career."
Among those downs were the 2008 financial crisis, when General Motors left town, and Ford and Chrysler slashed local jobs. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shuttering plants and disrupting supply chains.
But Desaulniers said he, too, thinks the current situation feels unusual.
"This time, it's a little different because it's like your best friend, your best friend that you've been working with forever," he said. "And all of a sudden, 'Well we don't like that idea, so we're going to charge you tariffs so your vans coming across gonna cost more money for us to buy.'"
"I don't know how long it's going to last," added Desaulniers, who works as a stock leader, bringing parts to the assembly line. "I don't know if Mr. Trump is just throwing it out there and waiting to have negotiations happen, but hopefully negotiations happen sooner than later."
Desaulniers said both his father and grandfather worked at the factory. Now, his son is employed there as well.
Blaise Desaulniers has worked at the plant full-time for seven months now. He works in trim, installing side airbags.
"I've always seen it as a good job," he said. "So seeing the opportunity to come up to work full time, I left school and I took it because I knew it would be something I would be able to raise my future family with."
Blaise said he was studying at St. Clair College before making the change, and says he could still go back to school. "But I know there's a lot of people who don't have the opportunity to do that.
"So just myself looking at those people who don't have that opportunity, just imagining myself in that place — it's very scary right now."
All three men are now collecting unemployment, with the two more senior autoworkers receiving top-ups from Stellantis to bring their pay closer to their typical wages. Blaise doesn't yet qualify for those top-ups, however.
"It is very helpful," Gungle said of the top-up. "But at the end of the day, it's still not a full week's worth of pay."
He said he believes Windsor-Essex has already started feeling the economic hit.
"These tariffs have been looming over us for the last few months," he said. 'So both my wife, myself, and a whole bunch of other people I've talked to at the plant have been tightening our belts for a little while."
Desaulniers said he's "spending less, plain and simple."
"It's not just going to affect the auto worker," he said. "It's going to affect all the little mom and pop shops in Windsor and Essex County at the same time."
Desaulniers said he's hopeful the industry — and the city — can survive.
"We had 2008, we had the bankruptcy, we had COVID," he said. "We always come back stronger."
He said he wants Trump — who signed the existing Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement in his first term — to negotiate any concerns he has now with Canada instead of using tariffs.
"Once you get it negotiated, it'll be better for the workers in the States. It'll be better for the workers in Canada," he said.
"Let's get back to building cars."
Gungle says he's wary of relying on the U.S., though, and wants Canada's auto sector to increasingly look to other markets.
"We're dealing with the same administration in the United States that negotiated the new NAFTA five years ago," he said. "And it's in fact that same person's signature on that from five years ago, and now they're going back on their word. So how would we trust anything that gets negotiated from this point forward?"
For Gungle, the trade war might mark a permanent change in Canada-U.S. relations.
"I don't know if our relationship with the United States ever goes back to the way it was," he said. "Why would I want to support an economy that doesn't support us?"
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with files from Jennifer La Grassa