Oshawa auto plant workers face uncertainty as U.S. tariffs take hold [Video]

Union leaders at General Motors’ Oshawa assembly plant are braced for a halt in production as U.S. tariffs choke off the supply chain. But the Unifor executives, who have seen the plant east of Toronto weather the 2008 financial crisis, the pandemic and global cost-cutting, say they believe GM has a future in Oshawa.

“We’ve lived through everything in the last 20 years and somehow we’ll live through this,” said Jeff Gray, who represents 5,000 members at the Oshawa plant, including 3,000 GM employees.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, fulfilling a months-long threat in what he says is a move intended to create U.S. jobs and balance trade.

“They’ll have to build their car plants and other things in the United States, in which case they’ll have no tariffs,” Mr. Trump said on Monday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with retaliatory tariffsand said Mr. Trump is …