June 26, 2026 | The week’s top stories and Unifor’s Lana Payne sets the table for contract talks

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Hi everyone and welcome to the June 26th, 2026 episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast.

I'm your host, Greg Lason, the digital and mobile editor at Automotive News Canada.

Coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario, the automotive capital of Canada.

Today on the show we hear from Uniform President Lana Payne. She recently spoke with Automotive

News Canada Toronto Bureau Chief David Kennedy to talk just before contract negotiations between

the Union and Ford kicked off earlier this week. Lana spoke about what's at stake, the Union's

game plan and more. Canada cannot become the Australia of the North. It just can't. We've

had an auto industry for over a hundred years. We have to do everything we can in this set of

negotiations to protect it. But first to look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the

week. China's biggest automakers are seriously eyeing Canadian production. Industry Minister

Melanie Jolie says BYD, Cherry and Gile are willing to explore majority Canadian owned

joint ventures to assemble electric vehicles in Canada. During a visit to China, Jolie recently

met with Chinese auto executives. Ottawa is offering access to its new EV import quota in hopes

of landing investment and local manufacturing. Building vehicles in Canada would allow the

Chinese automakers to sell beyond the country's import limits. In sticking with manufacturing,

GM's Oshawa assembly plant could lose production of the light duty Chevrolet Silverado 1500

before the end of next year. That's according to industry analysts. That would leave the plant

building only heavy duty pickups and could reduce production at the factory to about 50,000 vehicles

annually. GM disputes reports of a production scale back and says employment and the current

two-shift operation are expected to continue. But Unifor says workers remain concerned as

contract talks approach this summer. Finally, in product news, Honda is planning to revive the

element and it will do so as a hybrid crossover aimed at outdoor enthusiasts and adventure seekers.

According to automotive news sources, production is expected to begin in Ohio in 2029. That plant

will serve as the model's sole global production hub. The new element would slot between the HRV

and CRV and target nearly 100,000 annual sales. Analysts say today's popularity of rugged

adventure themed vehicles could make the quirky crossover more successful than in its original run.

And that's a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.

You can find more on those and other stories at our website, automotivenews.ca.

Coming up we hear from Unifor President Lana Payne.

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Welcome back to the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host Greg Lason. We'll now

hear a conversation between Automotive News Canada, Toronto Bureau Chief David Kennedy

and Unifor President Lana Payne. Lana, thanks for being here. I just want to, as we tee up USMCA

talks with the United States, I'm just hoping you can spell out Unifor's wish list to start me off

here. What do you want to see on the Automotive file? I mean, obviously our first priority is to

get the tariffs removed that have been applied through the Section 232 on autos, but on all

sectors in the Canadian economy. That has to be a priority because anything, any discussion on

things like rules of origin or all of these other items that will likely become part of the negotiation

around auto are kind of useless and futile until we get to a place where we're discussing and having

those tariffs removed. So that's our number one priority. Our second priority is to advocate

for the position that we've talked about for over a year now, and that is if you

sell in North America, you build in North America and to try to get the US to focus on where the

real problem here, the problem is not Canada. The problem is we have regional auto industries

around the world, and in the case of where we live, it's North America. And in that region, we need to

be able to have an agreement that treats working people fair in all three countries, but also

that focuses on this very big problem we have. And that is we are importing 5000000 cars,

which is about 22% of the market, probably a little higher. In the US, it's 22%. So they're

importing three and a half million cars that are not built in North America. And that becomes a really

big problem because that number continues to grow. And so you can't enhance or have a more robust

supply chain, have a more robust manufacturing sector in auto and otherwise if you're not doing

something about the free riders. And so the importers in my mind are the free riders and it's

become a bigger problem. And that is really where we need to focus in the Kuzma talks. And nobody

has given me, I would say, a reason why we should not go down this path. If we truly want to protect

the Canadian auto industry, these are the kinds of discussions that we need to be having at the

table. And it's in the Americans interest to solve this problem too. Because obviously,

5000000 cars is 20 assembly plants worth of work. That is where we need to be focusing. How

do we bring more of that work to North America, not just sharing up a shrinking pie, which is

what we would be doing if we're only focusing on the North American manufacturing base.

And obviously you mentioned Section 232. For auto, that's really the problem here,

we know. The review is more encompassed in the wider review here. But for Canada,

how important is getting Section 232 ironed out to these overall discussions? Is it worth having

this review for Canada without fixing what's gone on in 232? Yeah, I mean, the reality is we

have to deal with this. We have seen a very large segment of our industrial base that has been

impacted. The uncertainty, the attack on investment, I would say that we have lost. And once you're

out of an investment cycle, we all know that means you better make it into the next one. This is

part of the problem. It's not even what's happening today. It is also what will happen tomorrow and

next year if we're unable to resolve this. And Canada cannot become the Australia of the North,

which it just can't. We've had an auto industry for over 100 years. We have to do everything we

can in this set of negotiations to protect it and protect it so that we are actually protecting

the foundation of an industrial economy in Canada because the auto industry is so linked to all of

these other elements, whether it is the steel industry, the aluminum industry in Canada,

the inputs for the auto industry, all of that is important. Mining, you name it, it's all connected

in the supply base. But also, I would say to you, the benefit and the ecosystem that gets created

around the auto sector, whether it is the engineering work that occurs, the software work

that occurs, that also is very important for the broader advanced manufacturing sector in Canada.

We are a nation of builders. We can't have, I would say to you, it is so critical to have a

strong manufacturing sector because that is also part of how you maintain and protect your own

sovereignty and your own national interests. Once that capacity is gone, it's a very, very big problem.

A lot at stake right now, but also, I believe there is a pathway through this and Canada is smart

about what we need to do. We've negotiated many deals and I'm happy to be part of the advisory

committee now with the prime minister and with our trade minister to work our way through this.

It'll be all hands on deck because that's what we're going to need. There is a lot at risk right

now. As we've already seen over the past few weeks, the temperature in the rooms

going up a little bit. We're seeing some more rhetoric fly. Beyond that, in your conversations

with both officials in Canada and the U.S., are you seeing appetite for a deal?

What I see is the conditions right now of what these tariffs have done to the United States

and to Canada. The U.S. manufacturing sector has been hurt dramatically by the tariffs that they

put on Canadian goods, whether or inputs, whether it's aluminum or steel or whatever the case may

be. Obviously, the closer you get to a deadline, the more important it is to focus in. This is true

of union negotiations the same way as it is of negotiating trade agreements. I believe when you

listen right now, you're going to get, because it's almost like the pre-negotiating stage,

there'll be a lot of posturing that is to be expected. What I would say to Canadians is,

don't be too fussed by that. We have a job to do at the bargaining table, and hopefully,

we're successful there. I do believe the U.S. needs an agreement with us. We are their number one

customer. We have created leverage for ourselves as well. Outside of the leverage that we naturally

would have, you hear it often from Jameson Greer. They are not happy with the fact that

American chardonnay, booze, have been removed from many of the shelves in Canada. That gives us a

leverage point in negotiations. We have others. We have lots of strength here based on the fact

that energy is, if you look at the energy markets and the fact that Canadian energy is needed in

the United States, if you look at aluminum, despite the fact that there's a tariff on it,

my gosh, does the U.S. need our aluminum right now? Despite what the president will say,

the whole situation in Iran has created, I would say, even more conditions that are favorable to

Canada to be able to get to a place where we're getting a trade deal. The other thing I would say,

is that it's very unlikely that this is going to be sorted by July 1. It's really important for us

to put this in perspective. I had no expectations that this would be done by July 1. I don't want

people to feel disappointed that that's the case. We just carry on and we put our heads down.

We negotiate as much as we can. Then in the reality, if we get to a place where a deal isn't

possible, we'll have to deal with that outcome at that time. You mentioned Canada being the U.S.

as best customers. Certainly, when it comes to auto, there's no argument. There's no other market

for D3 pickup trucks, for instance. Canada's the one that buys those, really, almost exclusively.

Are you seeing the companies who you represent or members working at the companies who you represent

step up a little bit more and make that argument in the United States?

Obviously, many of them have been doing some of this, what I would say, behind the scenes. In other

words, not in op-eds and all of that. Certainly, you have seen Jim Farley speak very clearly

of the CEO of Ford Motor Company about needing an Accusement USMCA, depending on what country you're

in. We use different acronyms. This is important to Ford Motor Company. It's important to the auto

industry and that we should focus on where our bigger problems are, for example, China. I'm in

agreement on a lot of those things, I would say, as we have to work together here. He's been very

clear from the beginning that we needed an ability to get an agreement around autos. If we had to

tinker around edges to do things, we had a whole priority list before we got into this trade war

around how we saw Accusement could be improved. For example, the rapid response mechanism, which

I'm sure you're aware of, which basically lays out an ability to protect things like freedom of

association and unionization, which was available to Mexican workers. Our position is that this

should be available in all of North America. There may come a time, for example, and this is where I

would be propositional, where workers in the Southern United States or other US states where

there are right to work laws, that they may also feel that their rights are being infringed, their

freedom of association is being infringed, and therefore should be able to have access to the

rapid response mechanism. That was one of our priorities. Obviously, talking about rules of

origin so that you could increase and onshore more of the work in North America was very important.

All of that is in column B, I would say to you right now. The main priority is getting the

terrace removed, having the side letter respected, and then looking at what else can we do together

to improve the auto industry for North America.

And just one final question. Obviously, the one other thing that's happened over the past few

months is China. I brought a pretty big policy change from Ottawa that probably hasn't made

things simpler in these discussions. So just take me through what that's done in the build-up to

these talks and where you expect it to go on the China EV deal.

I'm totally expecting the US to have this as an irritant, I think is the word that they've been

using the same way that having wine off the shelves here in Canada is an irritant for them.

The problem we have, of course, is that our experience with China is that they have a massive

overcapacity in their part of the world in terms of auto production. They want to dominate the

global auto industry. That is their goal. And they will not make an ounce of profit until they get

there. Until they can control the market, they're okay to take a loss for the rest of time. And

they're able to do that for all of the reasons that we know. So this is a very problematic area.

And I do expect that the US will raise this. I expect the issue of forced labor to be

also something that gets discussed, all of those things for sure. Because the reality is

we're not increasing our supply chain base in the auto industry with adding China to the ability to

just send cars into Canada and sell them here without actually having to manufacture anything here,

which is why we've been very clear China is a problem. But so are all these other countries

that import virtually for free while the rest of us are trying to build things in North America and

employ Canadians and Americans and Mexicans? And that is how do we as three countries secure that,

improve on that, and deal with this other problem over here? And I believe we're going to have to

get there. And China is just kind of sitting back quietly right now. The US is in some ways

driving many nations to China. And Canada has done this China deal allowing the importation of

China built EVs. And we've seen around the world, if you look at some of their companies,

they don't actually build up supply chains. What they do is they build the cars in China,

they send them in a box to a factory wherever that factory is, and they're assembled from a

knockdown kit and very little work is involved. That cannot be the future of the auto industry

in Canada or North America. We will all be losers if that's the future.

I'd like to thank Lana for her time and David for conducting the interview.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show, have a suggestion or simply want to comment,

email me at glasen.autonews.com. And remember, you can listen to all our previous podcasts on

Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, or on our website, automotivenews.ca. Just scroll to the podcast

hub in the middle of our homepage. And don't forget, you can follow Automotive News Canada on X,

where we're at Auto News Canada. And you can find me there, too, at G-Lasen ANC.

Finally, look for us on LinkedIn, just search Automotive News Canada. That does it for this

episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast. We hope you'll join us next time. So long, everybody.

June 26, 2026 | The week’s top stories and Unifor’s Lana Payne sets the table for contract talks

About this episode

Company Keyloop

Person Lana Payne

Person David Kennedy

Company Unifor

Topic contract negotiations

Company Ford

Car Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Company GM

Term light duty

Term heavy duty

Term two-shift operation

Car Honda element

Term hybrid crossover

Car Honda Crv

Concept connected domains

Term cloud-based ecosystem

Concept digital retailing

Concept connected retail without the chaos

Term USMCA

Term Section 232

Concept 5000000 cars

Concept free riders

Concept supply chain

Person Jim Farley

Term rapid response mechanism

Term right to work laws

Term rules of origin

Concept onshore

Request an Explanation

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