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Photo by Dan Janisse / Windsor Star

Taylor said if the Liberal government cannot renegotiate the terms of the TPP deal then they must turn it down.

“We understand the importance of trade in Canada,” he said. “We understand that most of the product that we make in the automotive industry goes right across the border.

“But don’t think for a minute that because you signed a Trans-Pacific Partnership that we’re going to be able to ship more of our products to Japan or Malaysia or Indonesia,” he said.

Gerry Farnham, president of both Unifor Local 195 and Unifor’s Independent Parts Sector council, said he’s concerned the TPP will lead to the loss of 20,000 jobs across the auto and auto parts industries.

“These are … decent paying jobs that (people) can raise their families on,” Farnham said. “We’re not opposing trade. We’re saying to make fair trade not free trade.”

The auto industry and auto parts industry produced $11-billion worth of products in 2015 and employed more than 12,000 people in Windsor and Essex County said John Toth, vice-president of Unifor Local 195.

Photo by Dan Janisse / Windsor Star

He said autoworkers generated $764 million in direct economic activity in the area in 2014, they paid $201 million in income tax and $49 million in property taxes.

“Can you imagine the impact on this community without that $49 million … it would be devastating,” Toth said.

Douglas Hayes, chairman of the Council of Canadians Windsor Essex Chapter, said many people don’t understand what the TPP is about and why Canadian jobs are at risk.

“Our governments can’t stand up for us anymore,” Hayes said. “I see nothing wrong with free trade … (except) when it gets in the way of our environment or our civil rights, our human rights, those things.”

Randy Emerson, also with the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, said the recent hiring of 1,200 people at the Windsor Assembly Plant happened “in spite of free trade, not because of it.”

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Photo by Dan Janisse / Windsor Star