Ford Motor Co. and Unifor — the union that represents Canada's autoworkers — will begin bargaining for a new contract and Unifor's leaders call it "the most consequential" talks of their lifetimes.
On June 22, in downtown Toronto, leaders from the bargaining committees for Unifor and Ford will meet to start negotiating terms of a new agreement. The current contact Unifor has with the Detroit Three automakers expires at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 20. The UAW's contract expires May 1, 2028.
Unifor said the membership does not expect to win the same 2023 record-setting wage gains this time around, but members seek: fair economic progress on wages and pensions, the promise of products for job security and the union will not make concessions in this next contract.
Whatever tentative agreement Unifor and Ford comes up, if ratified by members at Ford plants, it will serve as a template for contract talks that follow between the union and General Motors and Stellantis. That is called pattern bargaining. The union has a target deadline to have a tentative deal ironed out with Ford by July 10.
"Unifor has approached Ford to lead the 2026 auto bargaining cycle," Ford spokesman Said Deep told the Detroit Free Press in an email. "We have a strong, long-term relationship with Unifor and have agreed to begin negotiations on June 22nd."
Unifor National President Lana Payne said at an April 14 meeting in London, Ontario, with council members that there were challenges the union faces this year unlike any other time.
“All of this makes for what will be the most consequential round of Detroit Three auto negotiations in our lifetimes," Payne said. "(President) Trump wasn’t bluffing. He was coming for our jobs. Investment would be impacted. Companies would respond in ways that would be detrimental to our members.”
That's because automakers are diverting billions of dollars to tariffs rather than investing them in Canadian plants, products, or workers, Payne said. Unifor said the United States and Canada have been building cars together since 1965 and that nearly half of the 2 million cars sold in Canada each year comes from the United States, making Canada the biggest export market for U.S.-built vehicles in the world.
All eyes on Canada
Negotiations typically start after Labor Day, but Unifor wanted to start early given the economic uncertainty in the world at the moment.
The labor experts said that Unifor is smart to pull negotiations forward because not only is there the uncertainty around what is supposed to be a renegotiated United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement this year, but with Canada soon allowing Chinese automakers to start selling high-quality, but affordable vehicles, in the nation, the future of the auto industry in Canada is on a precipice of change.
Earlier this year, Canada agreed to a quota that allows up to 49,000 electric vehicles originating from China to be imported annually under a reduced tariff of 6.1%. A tariff is a tax an importer pays when goods cross borders.
But that quota will increase each year and Unifor leaders worry that having a lot of these new entrants from Chinese brands such as Geely and BYD come in, at low prices, will eventually dissuade automakers from building cars in North America, thereby hurting the auto industry and its jobs.
"The geopolitical situation in the United States is volatile and Canada is impacted by the twists and turns on this side of the border in the auto industry," said labor expert Harley Shaiken, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. "The ceasefire in Iran is unstable at best and when it becomes unstuck, autos will take a real hit."
Shaiken also noted that in Mexico, employment in autos has grown strongly under NAFTA and then under the USMCA. But jobs in the United States and Canada have been hit.
"Unifor correctly thinks locking in gains now is their best bet," Shaiken said. "The situation, however, is volatile and the hyper-volatility of the U.S. president could complicate the situation much more."
Unifor is aware that it will be negotiating difficult issues such as job security going into an era when Canada will export fewer cars to the United States because relations between the countries have been damaged with Trump's tariffs, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
"Unifor is in a tough spot. Fewer cars are going to be made in Canada for U.S. export, and China is going to start sending cars to Canada. Those are two big reasons to worry about jobs," Gordon said. "Ford is in a tough spot. It can't guarantee security for jobs that produce cars that can't be sold in the U.S. and won't be absorbed by the Canadian market."
Unifor's top concern is job and plant security, which will require the Detroit Three to continue to invest in their Canadian manufacturing operations, said Marick Masters, a labor expert and professor emeritus at Wayne State University. He said Unifor will try to negotiate a deal that keeps the carmakers focused on minimizing the adverse effects of Trump's tariff policies, but such an arrangement will be difficult to navigate.
"Protecting and extending wage gains will be high on the agenda," Masters said. "I anticipate that both sides (Unifor and Ford) recognize the fragility of the current industry-trade circumstances and negotiate accordingly. The companies will face strong pressure from Trump to increase production and jobs in the U.S."
You can bet, the United States and the UAW will watch the negotiations, Masters and Gordon said, noting that the UAW will likely benefit from having fewer cars brought over from Canada.
What does Canada's auto industry look like today?
Unifor said it will be starting talks with one-third of its total 18,900 membership that work at Detroit Three auto factories laid off.
At Ford, there are 2,714 active members with 1,942 laid off, according to Unifor's data from February. Those numbers will change in October when Ford's restarts its Oakville Assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, to start building Super Duty pickups and calls back 1,800 to 1,900 laid-off workers.
At GM facilities in Canada, there are 2,715 Unifor members working and 1,502 laid off. At Stellantis, 6,590 are working and 2,290 are laid off.
In October 2025, as the Detroit Free Press reported, GM permanently ended production of the Chevrolet BrightDrop electric delivery vans at the CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, due to dismal sales of the vehicles. About 1,200 employees were laid off.
The Stellantis Brampton assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, went idle in 2023 after ending production of the Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, and Chrysler 300. Stellantis had planned to retool the plant to build the next-generation Jeep Compass. But in February 2025, the automaker halted a $1.3 billion retooling process at the plant to move that production to Belvidere, Illinois, to escape Trump's 25% tariffs on imported vehicles.
The Brampton plant remains idle and Stellantis continues to work on a long-term use for the Canadian facility where more than 2,000 employees remain laid off.
What does Ford have in Canada?
There are 5,150 Unifor members at Ford in Canada, that includes active and laid-off workers.
Ford currently operates Windsor Engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, where it makes 7.3-liter and 6.8-liter engines used in Ford's Super Duty and commercial trucks. It operates Essex Engine plant, also in Windsor, where it makes the 5.0-liter engines used in Mustang cars and F-150 pickups. Unifor said Ford is expected to start production of the Super Duty at Oakville Assembly this fall. Ford also operates parts distribution centers in the Canadian communities of: Leduc, Paris and Casselman.
Of the past 13 negotiations Unifor, and its predecessor, the Canadian Auto Workers union, has done with the Detroit automakers, Ford has been first in eight of them.
Why did Unifor choose Ford to go first?
Unifor said it opted to start again with Ford because it is the only Detroit automaker that has kept its commitments to its Canadian operations — launching the Super Duty production at Oakville — despite Trump's tariffs.
Secondly, Unifor said it has a long-standing professional and constructive working relationship with Ford.
Finally, Unifor said it believes it can get a fair agreement with Ford that will give it the best opportunity to secure a similar fair agreement with Stellantis and GM, who have not continued with their commitments to Canada's plants by idling CAMI and Brampton plants. That means there needs to be far more discussions in those sets of negotiations about job security than with Ford, Unifor said.
Unifor's intention with Ford is a conversation about ways to maximize output at the Ford Oakville plant to ensure its future.
Why start negotiations now?
The economic context is not improving, Unifor said, noting that in the past year, starting with Trump's tariffs and as time passes, uncertainty and instability grows. In fact, the union said it does not see any blue skies on the horizon, but rather sees Canada in a recession of sorts and the auto industry there facing an existential industrial crisis.
The union said any renegotiation of USMCA, which in Canada is called the CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico-Agreement), is unlikely to be an immediate resolution to tariffs.
In December, Trump proposed drastically scaling back mile-per-gallon standards for new vehicles put in place by former President Joe Biden and rewriting how those standards are developed, reducing pressure on automakers to produce and sell electric vehicles and potentially giving a boost to gasoline-powered ones.
But Unifor's position now is that the higher cost of fuel in the recent 12 months further distorts a market that was shifting back to gasoline-powered cars due to the emissions changes. That's because, ironically, consumers are now looking again at EVs to mitigate the high cost of gasoline.
Then, there are the upcoming midterm U.S. elections, which could pose a new potential shift in the politics in the country.
It's for all those external reasons, the union said these negotiations will be complex and the most consequential it has faced in years.
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer for USA TODAY Co. who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.