Voting “yes” to a potential strike will give the union representing workers at the Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton more bargaining power with the company amid plans to sell the facility, the local president says.
“It doesn’t mean we are going on strike, it means that you are giving the bargain committee the power and the tools necessary to try to get through this impasse and try to keep our Brampton assembly plant alive,” Unifor Local 1285 President Vito Beato said in an update to members last week.
Unifor was in the middle of negotiating a new deal with U.S-based automaker Stellantis when the company revealed it signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the Brampton assembly plant to local armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel Inc.
The breakdown in negotiations and possible sale of the plant followed years of stalled production at the facility, which employed around 3,000 workers in Brampton before it was shut down for retooling in 2024 ahead of production of the new Jeep Compass.
But following U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and tariffs on Canada, Stellantis announced it was shifting Jeep Compass production from Brampton to the U.S. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has called the plant’s possible sale to Roshel a “betrayal,” and says Stellantis has allowed itself to be “bullied” by Trump’s attack on Canada’s economy.
A strike authorization vote is scheduled for Saturday, and Beato called the moment vote “the most difficult situation we have ever been in.”
He urged all local members to vote yes, and said he wants the union’s team to return to negotiations with a 100 per cent mandate.
READ MORE: Strike vote puts spotlight on 2,200 Brampton plant workers still paid by Stellantis
“Voting ‘yes’ gives your bargaining committee the strength and the power at the table, and shows the company that you are behind us, and that solidarity is the strength of our union,” he said.
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Beato says the union and Stellantis are in the conciliation process, and “we are far away from even being on the picket line, if that’s even what we decided to do.”
Unifor and Stellantis agreed last month to extend the income-security provisions covering laid-off members of Local 1285.
Under that agreement, the payments will continue until the two sides reach a legal strike or lockout position, or until a new collective agreement takes effect, whichever comes first. Some workers have moved to other Stellantis operations, including Windsor.
Canada has launched a dispute resolution process against Stellantis after the feds and the province pledged billions in subsidies to the automaker under various contracts. That included a joint commitment of $15 billion to help Stellantis partner with NextStar/LG for a new electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Windsor.
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says Ottawa will put “maximum pressure” on the U.S. automaker to restart production at the Brampton plant.
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