Statement on Brampton Assembly Plant<\/a> following Stellantis\u2019 declaration that it was abandoning its commitment to retool the facility for production of the next-generation Jeep Compass and moving that work to the United States as part of a new $13 billion investment south of the border.<\/p>\nThe Council made the union\u2019s position clear: the promised J4U (Jeep Compass) program that was contractually committed to Brampton Assembly will stay at Brampton Assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bargained a commitment to Brampton with Stellantis that we took and ratified with our members. Now we are at a point where the company is saying we don\u2019t care, and we don\u2019t recognize it,\u201d said James Stewart, Unifor Stellantis Master Bargaining Chairperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we lose this fight, it\u2019s not just that we\u2019ve lost the Brampton Assembly Plant, but we\u2019ve also lost the ability to bargain job security in the future if the company is going to ignore signed documents. Stellantis has commitments to Canada \u2013 they have commitments to Brampton Assembly Plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vito Beato, President of Local 1285, spoke to the devastating impact on Brampton members who have been on layoff since January 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers are worried that our plant is gone, that there is no product for our plant. I see it in their eyes; I hear it in their voices. All they\u2019ve done is do what they\u2019ve been asked to do and deliver big profits to the corporation. They deserve product in Brampton,\u201d said Beato.<\/p>\n
As Council delegates discussed next steps, the message was clear: Unifor is prepared to put everything on the line to defend Brampton jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stellantis Unit Chairs stood together to put forward a motion to do anything necessary to support BAP workers in maintaining production commitments. In a show of solidarity, Unifor Auto Council Chairperson and Ford Master Bargaining Committee Chair John D\u2019Agnolo and General Motors Master Bargaining Committee Chair Trevor Longpre pledged their support to defend Canadian auto jobs in Brampton and across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is leaving that plant. Because everyone is watching to see what we will do to protect BAP because it\u2019s going to snowball if we fail. So, we will do whatever it takes to protect BAP \u2013 to protect our auto industry,\u201d stressed Beato.<\/p>\n
Unifor National President Lana Payne emphasized the far-reaching implications of Stellantis\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know what\u2019s at stake here. If Stellantis can get away with this, what\u2019s stopping the next corporation \u2014 whether it\u2019s GM, or Ford, or any other company \u2014 because Brampton is the line in the sand. If this is allowed to occur, the bleeding of jobs will continue unabated, and we have half a million jobs depending on this industry,\u201d said Payne.<\/p>\n
Payne warned the company is engaging in stall tactics with public statements that it has plans for Brampton that it refuses to specify as it transitions work out of Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cStellantis thinks they can figure out what they are going to do with Brampton after we get through trade negotiations with the United States \u2013 that is not what was promised to our members. This is Stellantis trying to punt this problem down the road, and we all know how that will end up. We have three thousand members hanging on by a thread \u2013 so these assurances from Stellantis are worthless right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining the meeting from Ottawa, Payne shared that she has been in direct talks with government officials, including Prime Minister Carney, where she underscored the need for a Team Canada approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t allow Trump to pit province against province, sector against sector and worker against worker. We need to stand together, we want products in the plant, and we want the company to be held accountable to their commitments,\u201d said Payne.<\/p>\n
As the Council adjourned, the message was unanimous and unwavering: Stellantis must keep its promises to Brampton, and Unifor will use every tool at its disposal to make sure it does.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Unifor Stellantis Council united as it vowed to take any action necessary to hold Stellantis to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-487396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brampton","8":"tag-brampton","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}