Ambassador Bridge Protests Cost Automakers $300M: Study

DETROIT — The auto industry lost $300 million in production and wages last week due to the closure of the Ambassador Bridge, a new economic study showed.

The blockade of the bride by Canadian truckers affected auto plants on both sides of the side of the border, causing automakers to curtail production because assembly plants were suffering shortages in parts.

In just one week, automakers, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, and Toyota suffered an estimated $155 million in production losses, the Anderson Economic Group said in the study, which analyzed the impact of the blockades thus far.

Moreover, the study estimated that workers - a majority in Michigan and Ontario - lost $144.9 million in direct wages, including $51.26 million in Michigan alone, the study showed.

"Within hours of the trade disruption at the Ambassador and Blue Water bridges, we observed shortages and then slowdowns at assembly plants," Anderson Economic Group’s Principal and CEO Patrick Anderson said. "Only some of that lost production can be made up given the tightness of the auto industry’s supply chain right now, so these are real losses to the men and women working in this industry."

The Ambassador Bridge reopened Sunday night after authorities cleared the protesters, which resulted in several arrests and trucks being towed away. The Canadian truckers were protesting the country's latest COVID-19 vaccine restriction, which required truckers crossing the border to be vaccinated against the virus.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a statement Monday calling the reopening a "win for Michigan families."

"It’s time to get traffic and trade moving across North America’s busiest land border crossing again. I will always stand with every hardworking Michigander and do whatever it takes to ensure that our businesses can keep humming along," Whitmer said.