April 25, 2024

TORONTO – Critical multi-government investment for new Honda Canada electric vehicle, battery and battery material facilities will further bolster Canada’s auto sector and help secure and grow jobs across the value chain.

The projected $15 billion investment to assemble new electric vehicles, build a new battery cell plant in Alliston, Ontario alongside additional joint venture battery component and material facilities in Ontario is expected to create an estimated 1,000 new, direct jobs.

“This EV transition is an unstoppable reality and staking Canada’s claim and the jobs that go with it is only possible with the government investment and industrial strategy that Unifor has long called for,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “It is paramount however that government investment comes with guarantees of good paying jobs and transition supports for workers, and that workers’ rights to organize are fully respected.”

Today’s announcement by Honda marks the single, largest investment in Canada’s auto sector, following a string of other record-breaking announcements since 2020, when Unifor negotiated the first major EV investment in history at Ford Motor Company.

Honda EV production is tentatively scheduled for 2028, according to reports, with no details released today on retooling plans for Honda’s existing vehicle assembly plants, anticipated production downtime, future product programs or transition supports for affected workers – all critical issues that pose serious challenges for workers, and that Unifor has had to address in recent years for thousands of autoworkers in Ontario.

“As exciting as it is to build the auto sector of the future, we can’t lose sight of the instability this transition brings to autoworkers. We know this because we are living through it right now in Ontario. Our members are living through it,” Payne said. “Honda workers and those in the supply base will have many questions that deserve answers. Questions about job security, income security during the transition, and what their job of the future will be. They will need and deserve assurances.”

The Honda investment was made possible through strategic federal and provincial government supports estimated at $5 billion. It expands Canada’s forecasted electric vehicle production outlook as well as processing capacity for battery materials and represents Canada’s fourth announced battery cell “gigafactory” following prior announcements on the construction of the Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions NextStar battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, the Volkswagen battery plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, and the Northvolt battery plant east of Montreal, Quebec.

“Canada is vying with the world to obtain these long-term facilities and the thousands of jobs that will support the communities where they are built,” said Unifor Quebec Director Daniel Cloutier. “What governments are doing to secure the future of this industry is working, and a welcome change from past governments who oversaw the auto industry’s decline.”

Despite recently announced EV production slowdowns and retooling delays that are affecting auto assembly and parts workers in Canada and elsewhere, there is an undeniable growth path for EVs and EV investment that will transform the industry. In 2022, Unifor outlined a series of 29 specific recommendations to grow the industry and navigate this transition in support of workers.

Unifor is calling on governments to ensure that all automakers in receipt of public funds commit to deliver good, high-quality jobs for Canadian workers. This includes a commitment by automakers to remain neutral and impartial to employee efforts to form a union in their workplace. Unifor is also calling on the federal government to ensure the speedy passage of the promised Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit announced in the Budget 2023 Budget as well as its supplementary EV Supply Chain Investment Tax Credit announced in Budget 2024.

Unifor set of 29 recommendations for governments and automakers are contained in the union’s auto policy document, Navigating the Road Ahead: Rebuilding Canada’s powerhouse auto sector.

April 23, 2024

On May 1st, Unifor joins unions across Canada and around the globe to mark International Workers’ Day – a day where we celebrate workers and the labour movement – from our collective victories to our common struggles.

The ongoing affordability crisis continues to be a challenge for working class communities across Canada.  This crisis has been fueled by growing economic inequality exacerbated by global corporate giants who squeeze workers’ wages while extracting more wealth for their executives and shareholders. As recently reported by Oxfam International, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes since 2020, while the wealth of 5 billion people has decreased. Further, seven out of ten of the world’s largest corporations have either a billionaire CEO or a billionaire as their principal shareholder.

It is no surprise then that we have seen a corresponding wave of labour actions take place in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. It is clear the labour momentum of the 2023 ‘Hot Labour Summer’ has carried forward into 2024 as workers reject sub-par offers and concessions from employers that are simultaneously recording massive profits.

Since May Day of last year, thousands of Unifor workers have fought hard at the bargaining table, and in some cases engaged in strike action to achieve the fair gains they sought. This includes our 3,700 Unifor grocery store members at Metro, one of Canada’s grocery giants, who took strike action for fair wages. It also includes workers at Autoport, a subsidiary of CN Rail, who fought their employer who brought in scabs on the first day of the dispute. Elsewhere across North America, port workers, auto workers, writers and screen workers, media workers, transport workers and many others took unprecedented months-long strike action fighting for better job protections and working conditions.

These bold labour actions have inspired more workers to look to join unions and have resulted in equally bold organizing campaigns. In the past year, thousands of workers have joined Unifor to gain a seat at the bargaining table, a voice in their workplace and a place in the labour movement family. In B.C., Unifor is working hard to organize Amazon workers.  We have also seen the UAW make recent history by successfully organizing workers at the Volkswagen assembly plant in Tennessee, despite fierce right-wing political opposition – a strong signal that even in the most challenging of labour environments, workers are looking for dignity and respect on the job and are ready to stand up for their rights.

Only by building working-class power and uniting our movements at a global level can we effectively challenge the growing concentration of multinational corporate power.

On May Day, let us continue to mobilize and organize in solidarity, fighting for peace and social and economic justice and build the better world all workers deserve.