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WINDSOR—With fists raised and voices roaring, thousands of Unifor members, labour leaders, and allies surged into Windsor’s Riverfront Festival Plaza on April 26 in a powerful show of defiance against U.S. President Donald Trump’s assault on Canadian jobs.
“This is the fight of our lives,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “They are not [Trump’s] jobs to take. They are Canadian jobs. They are Unifor jobs, and we are going to do whatever we have to do to defend them and protect them.”
It was right here in Windsor, where in 1945, Ford Motor Company workers won union rights for workers across Canada, said Payne. Unifor and workers didn’t spend the energy winning historic collective agreements, anti-scab legislation, worker power, just to have Trump destroy it, she told the crowd, “not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
“Canadians actually buy cars and trucks – two million of them a year,” Payne told political party leaders seeking election. “That is why we have an auto industry in this country. If you expect to sell here, you goddamn well better be building here!”
Unifor members filled buses from across Ontario, including Brampton, Ingersoll, Kitchener, London, Oakville, Oshawa, and St. Catharines, converging on Windsor, alongside local members and supporters. Just steps from the U.S. border, they vowed to resist Trump’s destructive trade agenda by any means necessary.
Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi said while tariffs are the immediate threat, this fight is about the future of Canada.
“It’s about seizing the opportunity to build a more sustainable, self-reliant economy that supports workers in every province and sector,” she said.
Unifor members from sectors hardest hit by the trade war, including auto, independent parts suppliers and forestry, shared powerful testimony and issued a united call to intensify pressure both at home and abroad.
“Trump is playing a very dangerous game with the lives of U.S. and Canadian autoworkers,” said James Stewart, President of Unifor Local 444. “We will stand beside every single autoworker in this country. We will fight to protect every single job.”
Every supplier in North America right now is treading water, said Emile Nabbout, President, Unifor Independent Parts Supplier Council and President of Unifor Local 195, in a passionate speech.
“There are no new investments. Costs are rising. There is major uncertainty. These tariffs on Canada need to stop," said Nabbout.
“We can’t go back to the [former Prime Minister Stephen] Harper years. We can’t pin our hopes on tax cuts to grow the economy. That hasn’t worked. It will never work. It will never build the auto industry we need.”
John D’Agnolo, Unifor Auto Council Chair and President of Unifor Local 200 said Jan. 16, 2025, marked the 60th anniversary of the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, a trade agreement that solidified the automaking partnership between the two countries.
The Auto Pact eliminated tariffs on cars and parts, but only if automakers built as much in Canada as they sold in Canada.
“You can’t disconnect 60 years of supply chains overnight," D’Agnolo said. "You can’t attack Canada without causing major economic pain on both sides of this border…You sell here. You build here.”
For the forestry sector, Katrina Peterson, President of Unifor Local 324, said Unifor is calling for governments to develop an industrial strategy.
"We need to see leadership from all governments and from industry to work with us to support a sustainable future for Canada's forestry workers,” Peterson told the crowd.
Health care worker Alicia Rivera of Unifor Local 1106 said if trade wars crash our economy, health care funding will suffer, adding more burden to an already stressed health care system.
“We know what happens when workers stay quiet. We lose jobs. We lose services. We lose lives,” said Rivera. “We are not disposable. We are done waiting. And we are not backing down.
Fellow health care worker Jennifer Cloutier-Kennedy said this fight is not just about auto or manufacturing sector, but about all workers.
“It’s about the health care worker who hasn’t had a day off in months, or the factory worker whose job was shipped across the border, or the public sector worker bracing for the next round of cuts,” Cloutier-Kennedy, the VP of Unifor Local 2458.
“This rally is our response—to bad trade deals, to government cuts, to a system that always asks workers to carry the burden—while billionaires keep cashing in.”
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Unifor, Bea Bruske, Canadian Labour Congress President, denounced the aggressive U.S. policies and called for a united national response.
“Stay loud, stay united, stay ready. Let’s show them we’re all on Team Canada,” said Bruske. “Together, we rise. Together, we win.”
Payne left the crowd with a message of solidarity and mobilization.
“Elbows up!” she said. “Because nothing can break our determination, not Donald Trump and certainly not the bosses. Nothing can break our solidarity, because we built that.”
Unifor is pushing for immediate, bold action to strengthen economic resilience and safeguard Canadian sovereignty, including:
• Strategic tariff retaliation to counter unfair U.S. policies
• Penalties for companies that move jobs or operations from Canada in response to tariffs
• Enhanced income supports for displaced workers
• ‘Buy Canadian’ procurement policies to keep public dollars at home
• Export management and domestic processing of natural resources
• Emergency relief programs to prevent layoffs and maintain critical operations
Watch the rally video and join the fight at ProtectJobs.ca.
