The union representing thousands of laid-off workers at the Stellantis Brampton assembly says talks are ongoing with the U.S. automaker following an overwhelming vote to strike.
“It’s been three years that you guys have been through this uncertainty, this stress, this anxiety, and this is all about Brampton. And we’re at the epicentre right now,” Unifor Local 1285 President Vito Beato said in an update to members this week.
The Brampton plant was shut down for retooling in 2024 ahead of production of the new Jeep Compass. But Stellantis instead decided to move production to the U.S. in a surprise move last year amid President Donald Trump’s trade war on Canadian industries.
More than 97 per cent of Unifor workers at the Stellantis plant voted in favour of a strike as a bitter contract dispute with the automaker stalled in September, with the future of the company’s shuttered Brampton Assembly Plant emerging as a major sticking point.
The result does not mean a strike will automatically happen. But it does give the union authority to call one if necessary, although further steps must be completed before workers can legally walk off the job.
Beato says there are “still behind the scenes discussions happening with the government and the company.”
Back in August, Unifor members gathered in Ottawa for the union’s 2026 Canadian Council, where Unifor National President Lana Payne called Trump’s trade war “a moment like no other.”
“This trade war which has raged on for months and months is a war against working people,” she said.
Payne urged the Canadian governments to put pressure on corporate Canada to buy local, instead of from the U.S.
“From tissues to trucks, they need to step up and buy and procure Canadian goods and products,” she said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have announced a $8.7-billion plan to help bolster the province’s key sectors — steel, critical minerals and auto manufacturing — as they continue to manage the fallout of tariffs from the United States.
The plan includes $2.5 billion for the automotive sector, with the federal government chipping in $1.5 billion. And while Payne says the new funding will help support the auto industry amid the ongoing U.S. trade war on Canada, she said following the announcement that the government should “focus on sustaining threatened auto assembly operations in Brampton.”
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