Manufacturers say American autoworker strike could idle Canadian supplier plants
CBC
The ongoing strike by autoworkers at automotive plants in the United States will idle manufacturing plants in Canada in a matter of days, according to industry experts.
There are 13,000 workers striking at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis that are now on the eighth day of job action picketing at three facilities, each operated by one of the Detroit Three automakers.
Flavio Volpe is head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, which represents companies that build components for vehicles being built in North America.
He said companies let out a "sigh of relief" when the tentative deal between Unifor and Ford was announced.
But he said those companies are worried about the United Auto Workers threats to expand job action if General Motors, Ford and Stellantis do not make "serious progress" on the union's contract demands.
Volpe said that if strike action at a Jeep production plant continues, parts makers in Canada will adjust their production schedules next week.
"Auto part companies, employers that I represent, will idle those plants," said Volpe.
The North American auto industry operates on a just-in-time production schedule where the Detroit Three automakers buy parts from large tier-one supplier plants that source components for those parts from smaller, tier-two supplier plants.
A string of global crisis level events that includes the disruptive and deadly COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an on-going global microchip shortage, has put those smaller supplier plants in difficult financial positions.
That's made the timing of the UAW strike difficult for tier-one and tier-two suppliers — "especially given the interruptions over the last three years and how thin everybody's balance sheets have become," said Volpe.
WATCH | Supply chain expert says UAW strike showing cracks in the chains
Dennis Darby represents thousands of companies responsible for more than 80 per cent of the Canadian manufacturing sector as president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association (CME).
"This could not come at worse time," he told CBC News.
Darby is in Washington, D.C., this week meeting with his North American counterparts and said the strike is top of mind.
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