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<\/p>\nUnifor Local 1285 President Vito Beato speaks to members at a meeting on Feb. 19, 2026. (Photo: Unifor Local 1285)<\/p>\n
Recent meetings with U.S-based automaker Stellantis about reopening the shuttered Brampton assembly plant have been productive as collective bargaining negotiations with workers draws closer, a union leader says.<\/p>\n
Unifor Local 1285 President Vito Beato and other union reps met with Stellantis Canada President Trevor Longley on Feb 12, and says the meeting went well despite no news on what the company\u2019s \u201cbig plans for Brampton\u201d might be.<\/p>\n
But Beato said Longley told Unifor that he \u201cwakes up every morning thinking about Brampton,\u201d and stressed the shutdown is only temporary.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it was a good meeting, he went even as far as saying \u2018that if we were going to close Brampton we would have closed it already,\u2019 so I\u2019ll take that,\u201d Beato said in a video update posted on the union\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll keep the positivity, but again, we won\u2019t let our guard down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stellantis, which employs around 3,000 workers in Brampton, announced in October that the production of the Jeep Compass was being shifted away from Brampton to the U.S., despite years of assurances that the Jeeps would be built in Canada.<\/p>\n
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More than 200 workers at Brampton plant are now punching in at the American automaker\u2019s Windsor facility<\/a>, while other employees waiting to work are receiving less than three-quarters of their regular pay.<\/p>\n Some 20 other non-unionized workers will reportedly be laid off temporarily over the next year.<\/p>\n Unifor Local 1285 members also met earlier this month to prepare demands for upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with Stellantis in September. Beato said he wants to see a commitment from Stellantis reverse its slowdown in Brampton before bargaining begins.<\/p>\n He says union members will meet again on March 25 and March 26 \u00a0\u201cto read off the demands, approve those demands as a group, and get them blessed and and get them to the bargaining table.\u201d<\/p>\n The Stellantis plant property was gifted from the city to Chrysler back in the \u201880s before transitioning to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and eventually Stellantis. But a recent motion passed by Brampton City Council means the property can only be used for auto sector jobs<\/a> \u2013 a move that could \u201cmake sure those jobs come back to our city,\u201d Mayor Patrick Brown has said.<\/p>\n The motion passed with the unanimous support of council, and Beato said the move could help \u201cmake sure we get back to building cars in Brampton.\u201d<\/p>\n He called on Stellantis to \u201cstop appeasing the U.S. government\u201d and make decisions within its auto strategy that benefit the Brampton plant.<\/p>\n