Thousands of Windsor residents are waiting to to hear what Stellantis' plans are for the Windsor Assembly Plant past the two-week shutdown.
The automaker announced the temporary shutdown last week after U.S. President Donald Trump followed through on tariffs on automobiles.
The shutdown is not only affecting the 4,000 workers at the assembly plant but also thousands of workers at local suppliers. Unifor Local 444 represents workers at five local suppliers that are also shutdown this week. Unifor Local 195 represents many others.
"If this continues and it hits part in May the way they're talking, this could be detrimental to the industry until something is resolved," said James Stewart, President of Unifor Local 444.
Stewart indicated the automaker is assessing its next steps over this two-week temporary shutdown.
"They did say to us that they are going to assess the situation and they expect there could be changes to our schedule after the two weeks. Does that mean more layoffs? Does that mean something else? I don't know. They haven't been clear with us yet," said Stewart.
The Windsor Assembly Plant had been anticipating the addition of a third shift before the tariff announcements were made.
Stewart expects all decisions will come down to sales figures.
