Unifor is throwing its support behind Windsor-West incumbent Brian Masse in the upcoming federal election.
National president Jerry Dias says Masse and the NDP have been incredible advocates for Windsor's working class.
Ultimately he says, Unifor doesn't want to see Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer take power.
"Brian is always there when we need him," says Dias. "There is no question we will be supporting Brian. Overall, our strategy is to make sure that Andrew Scheer does not get elected. So we will support the candidates in the riding that we feel have the best chance of defeating a Conservative."
Dias says the New Democrats are ready to tackle some of the tough issues.
"The federal election is going to give us an opportunity to really talk about a national pharmacare program," he says. "The key issues in the short term will be the social issues that we need, but we also need a government that's going to maintain and fight for the auto industry and is going to fight for manufacturing jobs in general."
Dias tells AM800 News, a national auto strategy has been put on the back burner since the Stephen Harper Conservative government and he hopes an NDP government can bring it back to the spotlight.
"Here we are in 2019 and we still don't have a national auto strategy for this country. If I think about some of the different working groups that Harper dismantled, we would get the post-secondary education groups with us as we'd all get in a room and we'd talk about the challenges of the future, where the technology is heading. So issues like that need to be re-instituted."
Former Ontario cabinet minister Sandra Pupatello has announced she'll be seeking the Liberal nomination in Windsor-West along with Melinda Munro and Hsiao D'ailly.
Also running are Henry Lau of the Conservatives and Darryl Burrell of the People's Party of Canada.
The federal election goes October 21.
— With files from AM800's Peter Langill