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'We're fighting for the whole industry right now'_ Unifor president · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: We are continuing to monitoring the ongoing trade situation in Washington. Canada,
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  Speaker 1: US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is in his third straight
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  Speaker 1: week of talks with American officials. CBC News has learned
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  Speaker 1: that mister LeBlanc told a meeting of premiers earlier today,
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  Speaker 1: while a deal is not imminent, the current deal under
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  Speaker 1: discussion would see the United States lower, but not fully
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  Speaker 1: get rid of tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, autos and
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  Speaker 1: forestry products. To get a better insight on what's going on,
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  Speaker 1: Lana Paine sits on the Advisory Committee for Canada US
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  Speaker 1: Economic Relations. She's also the national president for Uniform. Miss pain,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for getting speaking with us today,
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  Speaker 1: but I do need to start with the breaking news
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  Speaker 1: related to Stilantis. I'm wondering if you can sort of
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  Speaker 1: bring us up to speed with what is going on
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  Speaker 1: right now, with the new information that the company provided
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  Speaker 1: to you about what's going on with the plant in Brampton.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been a bit of a very very
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  Speaker 2: difficult day, Katie, for our members in auto, but particularly
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  Speaker 2: at the Brampton assembly plant. We had gotten new information
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  Speaker 2: from the company on Wednesday that they are looking at
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  Speaker 2: selling that facility, and so that would bring an end
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  Speaker 2: to auto production there. And of course it's been eighteen
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  Speaker 2: long months of work by our.
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  Speaker 3: Union to try and not to end up in this place.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, a very very difficult day, difficult.
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  Speaker 3: News, but we'll do what unions do.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to fight with everything we have because what's
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  Speaker 2: at stake here is Brampton, of course, but we're fighting
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  Speaker 2: for the whole industry right now.
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  Speaker 1: In this specific location. What does it mean for immediate
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  Speaker 1: jobs and sort of jobs that sort of feed into
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  Speaker 1: this facility.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's huge.
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  Speaker 2: Every assembly plant is very difficult to replace, and you
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  Speaker 2: can imagine the economic impact is massive. We have twenty
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  Speaker 2: two hundred people who work at that plant and thousands
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  Speaker 2: more who work in autoparts, and then of course the
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  Speaker 2: general spinoff from that kind of impact is great and
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  Speaker 2: it's not something that you can easily replace.
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  Speaker 1: So, if you are an auto worker and you are
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  Speaker 1: watching this right now, what is your message to so
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  Speaker 1: many people who work in this industry are in our
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  Speaker 1: seeing blow after blow after blow, you know, because in
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  Speaker 1: part or perhaps do you think that this is all
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  Speaker 1: a part of the trade war.
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  Speaker 3: There's many factors at play.
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  Speaker 2: Here, but we cannot obviously discount the huge impact the
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  Speaker 2: trade war has had on the auto sector and many
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  Speaker 2: other sectors as a result of the Section two three
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  Speaker 2: two tariffs. It has been punishing, It has been brutal.
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  Speaker 2: The forestry sector is going through through similar challenges, very
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  Speaker 2: very difficult for workers. We've had many workplaces, closed, mills
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  Speaker 2: that have been idled in that sector too. And this
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  Speaker 2: is the message that I bring to every time I
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  Speaker 2: go to this Trade Committee table, that we are different
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  Speaker 2: in Canada. This is something that we have to continue
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  Speaker 2: to work hard at explaining to the United States we
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  Speaker 2: actually have balanced trade in.
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  Speaker 3: The auto sector with the US.
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  Speaker 2: We are not the problem here, and even a lower
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  Speaker 2: tariff than what we're experiencing right now would still be
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  Speaker 2: quite problematic for a manufacturing sector where we have spent
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  Speaker 2: decades integrating this sector with the United States. This is
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  Speaker 2: not easy to ondo and on scrambling that egg is
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  Speaker 2: very very painful, and it's our members who are on
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  Speaker 2: the front lines of that and so making sure that
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  Speaker 2: our negotiators understand this. I know they don't have an
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  Speaker 2: easy job, Katie. None of about what we're experiencing right
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  Speaker 2: now is easy. But the reality is, we have to
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  Speaker 2: get the best deal for Canada, and if we can't,
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  Speaker 2: if we can't get the best deal for autoworkers and
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  Speaker 2: forestry workers and everybody else, we have to be willing
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  Speaker 2: to do what's necessary here, and I think you're hearing
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  Speaker 2: it from a lot of US. A line has to
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  Speaker 2: be drawn in the sand, and that means we have
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  Speaker 2: to look at retaliating in all of the ways that
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  Speaker 2: we can.
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, when he is in the Oval Office, when
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  Speaker 1: he is at events, he frequently talks about how he
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want Canadian cars, we don't need them. Canadians fully
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  Speaker 1: recognize that the North American auto industry is deeply integrated
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  Speaker 1: and there are jobs in all three countries Canada, the US,
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  Speaker 1: and Mexico that all rely on these integrated supply chains.
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  Speaker 1: But when news like this comes out, when a company
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  Speaker 1: likes Stilantis is deciding not to invest in Canada versus
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  Speaker 1: investing in the United States, is that what Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: is ultimately trying to.
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  Speaker 2: Do here, What what he's missing is that these tariffs
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  Speaker 2: are actually hurting these very companies that operate in the
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  Speaker 2: US as well, and hurting them deeply. If you look
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  Speaker 2: at their bottom lines, they have paid billions and billions
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  Speaker 2: and billions of dollars in tariffs. You know, the reason
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  Speaker 2: many of these companies operate in Canada is not just
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  Speaker 2: because they have access to the to the US market.
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  Speaker 3: It is because Canadians buy a lot of vehicles.
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  Speaker 2: Our market is worth over one hundred billion dollars a year,
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  Speaker 2: and many of the cars that we buy in Canada
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  Speaker 2: actually come from the United States. That's why, you know,
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  Speaker 2: none of these arguments by the President hold water. The
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  Speaker 2: reality is Canada is definitely not the problem here, and
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  Speaker 2: we do in some ways have a shared problem, and
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  Speaker 2: that is we should be looking at, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: billions and billions of imports of cars that are coming
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  Speaker 2: from all over the world where countries or companies are
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  Speaker 2: not investing in either of our countries.
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  Speaker 3: How do we deal with that problem and.
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  Speaker 2: Focus on that rather than really beating up on the
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  Speaker 2: companies that are actually manufacturing in North America, including in
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  Speaker 2: the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Before we get to today's briefing where you spoke or
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  Speaker 1: where you got an update about the state of trade talks,
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  Speaker 1: can you just give us really quickly a sort of
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  Speaker 1: a sense of what comes next in terms of what's
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  Speaker 1: going on with Stilantis and Brampton and what members can
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  Speaker 1: expect the sort of immediate next steps and what you're doing.
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  Speaker 3: Well.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously we are currently not to layer the problems here,
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  Speaker 2: but we are currently in auto negotiations. We've just finished
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  Speaker 2: negotiations with Ford Motor Company. We're now at the table
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  Speaker 2: with General Motors. Those talks will continue into next week
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  Speaker 2: and then we head into bargaining with Stillantis and all
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  Speaker 2: of this, of course will be subject to that round
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  Speaker 2: of bargaining.
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  Speaker 3: More to come on that.
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  Speaker 2: We will continue to talk with the company to obviously
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  Speaker 2: stress what it is that we feel they should be
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  Speaker 2: doing here. We will be talking to government and policy
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  Speaker 2: makers as well, because on that front, we need an
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  Speaker 2: auto policy in this country that actually encourages investment in
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  Speaker 2: Canada and manufacturing in Canada, and there are elements of
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  Speaker 2: the auto policy that we have right now that are
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  Speaker 2: just completely unworkable and do not support that.
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  Speaker 1: You are on the briefing call with the Canadian Trade team.
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  Speaker 1: What straight out to you about what's happening right now
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  Speaker 1: behind the scenes in Washington.
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  Speaker 2: Well, as someone who's familiar with negotiations, I would say
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  Speaker 2: to you this is not surprising that we have many
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  Speaker 2: days left to talk with the United States with this
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  Speaker 2: kind of deadline that we've all sat upon ourselves, because
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  Speaker 2: August nineteenth is when the President has said he's going
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  Speaker 2: to introduce these new tariffs on portions of the Canadian
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  Speaker 2: economy and sectors where a lot of Canadian workers are employed.
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  Speaker 3: So I expect where we are is where we are.
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  Speaker 3: That is it's tough right now.
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  Speaker 2: My encouragement always to these negotiators is hold your nerve,
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  Speaker 2: hold the line. We can't afford to give any more
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  Speaker 2: concessions here and we needed a good deal and that
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  Speaker 2: means we've got to grind it out until the very end.
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  Speaker 2: And if in the end we can't get a deal
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  Speaker 2: that's acceptable for Canada, we have to look at these
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  Speaker 2: other options, and that means retaliating against the US because
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  Speaker 2: we cannot sustain any more of these tariffs and we
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  Speaker 2: have to draw a line in the sand.
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  Speaker 3: All right.
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  Speaker 1: Lanna Pane, the national president of Uniform and also on
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  Speaker 1: the Advisory Committee of Canada US Economic Relations, thank you
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  Speaker 1: for your time on a very difficult day.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie