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U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs were in the spotlight during Unifor’s Western Regional town hall on April 16.
Unifor National President Lana Payne provided members with an update of how the union has been aggressively responding to Trump’s tariffs, including demanding protections for Canadian jobs and workers with all levels of government, continuing to provide input to the prime minister’s task force and meeting with premiers and Prime Minister and Liberal leader Mark Carney.
She said that to get through these tough times, workers are going to need to stand together.
“Energy workers will need to support auto workers, health care workers will need to support forestry workers, telco workers will need to support aerospace workers, and so on. We’ll only survive this if we stand together, united,” she said.
Payne has been prominent in media interviews speaking to the need for retaliatory tariffs, enhanced income supports for workers and defending sectors that are under attack, including forestry, auto and steel and aluminum. The union has been advocating for made-in-Canada procurement strategies to create jobs and build a more resilient economy.
Trump’s ongoing delays only cause confusion and uncertainty, where even the threats of tariffs have the potential to cause irreparable damage to the Canadian economy.
Payne said Canadians are seeing the impacts of tariffs already – layoffs, plant closures and investors being intimidated to move production and work out of Canada.
Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle reviewed how premiers are reacting to the tariffs.
“Unifor was invited to join Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew’s U.S. Trade Council, formed specifically to deal with the ongoing threats of tariffs,” he said. “I am on that panel and have attended several meetings, both in person and online to advocate for a stronger push on the federal level for EI reform and challenging them to step up provincially as well.”
In Alberta, McGarrigle said he and Unifor National President Lana Payne met with Premier Smith and her officials as tariffs were just being imposed. Smith was talking about lowering interprovincial trade barriers and the union pushed back to make sure that is not at the expense of worker safety, training, or certification requirements.
But there has since been no discussion, forums, nor invitations for labour involvement.
Ditto with Saskatchewan, pointed out McGarrigle.
“Now, we see [Saskatchewan Premier] Scott Moe today trying to justify his lay low approach and he wants to try to pit workers in the canola industry which is under threat from U.S. and Chinese tariffs against auto workers instead of standing up for all workers,” he said.
McGarrigle said he’s attended meetings of the B.C. Trade and Economic Security Taskforce that the province has created to “act quickly in the event something drastic is needed, like if the Columbia River treaty gets blown up.”
A member of the B.C. Softwood Lumber Advisory Council, McGarrigle said the forestry industry has been suffering under unjust tariffs for years and now the U.S. has moved the duties up to a staggering 34.45% and more for certain companies like Canfor.
“We are pushing [the industry] to make long term plans, use robust industrial policies, form industry roundtables and talk about keeping workers working instead of always talking about transitioning workers out of industry, because we all know all too often that ‘transition’ means a step down in wages, pensions, benefits, and even hours of work,” he said.
“We’ve called for major programs like the wage subsidy program we saw during COVID which helped so many workers and businesses.”
With so many workers fearing for their jobs and their livelihoods, McGarrigle urged members to get involved in the Unifor Votes campaign and elect leaders with the courage to protect Canadian jobs on election day, April 28.
To stay up to date on what Unifor is doing to counter tariffs, visit the union’s Protect Canadian Jobs website and take the Made-in-Canada pledge to receive a list of Unifor-made products and services.
