Windsor judge bars workers from blockading auto parts shipments to U.S

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Workers cannot bar a Windsor auto parts manufacturer from removing tooling equipment across the border to a Michigan plant, a Windsor judge has ruled.

“I am satisfied that the test for an interlocutory injunction has been met. An injunction is granted, effective April 4, 2025 at 9:00 a.m.,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Jasminka Kalajdzic stated in a written preliminary ruling released Friday morning.

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The order comes shortly after a hearing before the judge was held Thursday when lawyers for Titan Tool and Die requested an injunction barring any repeat of Monday’s blockade by workers. A transport truck was prevented by workers from leaving the Howard Avenue property with tools destined for the company’s Warren, Mich., operation.

A lawyer with Unifor’s national office had argued the case on behalf of Local 195, which represents Titan’s unionized employees.

After hearing of a truckload of dies being removed from the Howard Avenue plant on Monday morning, workers set up a blockade and prevented a second truck from departing. The seven-hour standoff, with Windsor police monitoring the situation, ended later that afternoon after the company agreed to remove the equipment from the second truck and return it to the plant.

Thursday’s hearing before the Windsor judge was held as the company sought to prevent any further stoppages of equipment removal.

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The company, which argued the equipment belonged to the client and not Titan, had indicated it planned to ship eight pieces of machinery, with the first of those scheduled for Friday.

The company began shipping equipment to the U.S. Monday morning before a blockade by employees prevented a second shipment from leaving for Michigan. The company eventually relented and took the dies off the truck and the blockade came down by 5:30 p.m. Monday afternoon.

This week’s developments come amid an escalating trade war between Canada and the U.S., with Unifor and other critics complaining Trump administration tariffs are aimed at stealing Canadian manufacturing jobs.

The new U.S. tariffs were cited as “a deciding factor” in Stellantis announcing on Thursday a two-week production shutdown at its Windsor Assembly Plant starting Monday, affecting thousands of local workers in the auto sector.

The Windsor area is home to hundreds of tool, die and mould auto parts manufacturing facilities.

— More to come.

dwaddell@postmedia.com

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