Major automakers have been experiencing some problems for some time now due to protests against the vaccination mandate in Canada, in which several major bridges on the border of the United States of America and Canada were blocked at once. Companies such as Honda, Toyota, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have been forced to cut production of their vehicles in Canada and the US as protests against the mandate enter their third week.
This is the latest disruption to the supply chain, which in turn managed to affect the automotive industry, which is still suffering from a shortage of semiconductor chips, which also contributed to a slowdown in production, as well as led to an increase in the prices of both new and used ones. cars. Protests against the new mandate began in late January shortly after truckers decided to band together to travel from western Canada to the nation’s capital, Ottawa, to protest a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for truckers crossing the border into America.
These protests were also supported by Republican politicians in the United States, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Well, the close attention of the right-wing media to this protest even led the Canadian government to publicly condemn “foreign interference” in this issue by the United States. Either way, the ongoing protests have stalled traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, which in turn connects Detroit to Windsor, a Canadian city, forcing automakers to cut production. A company like Ford said the protest on the bridge “is hurting customers, auto workers, suppliers, companies and communities on both sides of the border that have been experiencing parts shortages for two years due to the global semiconductor problem, COVID and more.” .
Meanwhile, Toyota, in turn, shut down two of its plants in Kentucky and Ottawa due to the chaos in the supply chain caused by protests on the bridge. And Stellantis, the parent company of Dodge, Jeep and Ram, has similarly said it has been forced to cut one of its shifts at its Windsor plant but expects other shifts to continue as normal. Honda has suspended one of its production lines at its plant in Ontario, while General Motors has canceled an entire shift at its plant in Lansing, Michigan.
