‘This is the fight of our lives’: Unifor rallying to save Brampton auto plant slated to move work south

The true strength of Brampton’s automotive workforce will be on full display this week. 

“We need all hands on deck,” Vito Beato, the president of Unifor Local 1285, declared in a video posted on the union’s Facebook page. “This is the fight of our lives and we need to show solidarity like we’ve never shown before.”

On Wednesday, from 9 a.m. every day “until further notice”, the more than 3,000 Unifor members at the Stellantis auto assembly will gather en masse outside the shuttered facility to show the company they are determined to keep their jobs. 

The rallies follow the sudden news from Stellantis earlier this month that production of the next generation electric Jeep Compass, previously planned for the Brampton Assembly, is moving to the United States. The decision, which workers found out about through a robocall from company officials, follows years of uncertainty and has left thousands of Brampton families at risk of losing their financial stability. 

Production at the facility has been on pause since December 2023 when work began to retool operations to accommodate the electric Jeep Compass. That work—which only required a few hundred employees, leaving thousands of others off the job—was paused in February following the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian-made automobiles. The delay was only meant to last a matter of weeks. Instead, it stretched on for more than eight months, with Stellantis refusing to provide regular updates to its thousands of employees. Then came the October 14 announcement, which Beato called “disrespectful and disgusting”. 

With Jeep Compass production shifting to Illinois, it leaves the job status of thousands of workers in Brampton uncertain. While the company claims it has future plans for the Brampton facility, nothing official has been announced. 

“Canada is very important to us. We have plans for Brampton and will share them upon further discussions with the Canadian government,” Stellantis officials claimed in a public statement.

The particulars of any discussions with the federal government are unclear. 

In an October 15 letter written by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly to Antonio Filosa, CEO of Stellantis, she stressed that the government would protect the interests of Canadians.

"Stellantis has made important commitments to Canada and to its workforce. Canadians expect that Stellantis will respect and honour these commitments," she wrote. "Anything short of this is unacceptable. Should Stellantis choose not to respect its obligations, we will act in the interests of all Canadians and hold the company to full account and exercise all options, including legal."

In May 2022, the federal and provincial governments committed $513 million each to support the company’s Windsor and Brampton retooling projects. No taxpayer money will flow to the company unless these commitments are realized. 

Following the relocation announcement, Prime Minister Mark Carney assured reporters that in his discussions with company officials, Stellantis was committed to finding another model to produce in Brampton. 

"I received assurances from the global CEO of two things: one, that they're looking at a different model being produced in Brampton…That decision would be taken in the context of the finalization of the USMCA, or to use the American term, CUSMA, or to use our term, negotiations; and as well, that support would be provided for workers,” Carney said. “We're working with them. We're working with Unifor, working with the province, to ensure that those workers in Brampton have more than just the opportunity, and they do have the opportunity to move to the additional shift that is being put on at Stellantis's other facility (in Windsor)."

Following the news about the Brampton Assembly, rumours began circulating that approximately 1,500 workers from Brampton could be transferred to Windsor, where a third shift is being added. 

Beato warned union members to be cautious of company “spin” following such rumours. 

“It’s a smoke screen, these things are important for our members and we know that, but that messaging that is going to come from the company, and is going to continue to come from the company, is that this is okay, the decision that they made to move the Compass…to move the investment to the U.S. because of the things that they’re doing, the transfers, the protections and these ‘big plans for Brampton’”. 

TOP: Vito Beato, the president of Unifor Local 1285, speaks at a rally earlier this month. The event drew a large crowd to the Brampton Auto Assembly less than two weeks before Stellantis made the announcement it was shifting the electric Jeep Compass production out of Brampton.

(Unifor Local 1285)

Beato says Unifor is fighting for the Jeep Compass to be returned to Brampton, and the giant union has the support of all levels of government to keep the Brampton Assembly operational. Cars have been rolling off the line at the facility for close to 40 years. 

“The federal government is on our side, the provincial government is on our side, the City of Brampton is on our side, our national president Lana Payne is on our side fighting for us, Stellantis Council is fighting for us, Auto Council is fighting for us, all locals from across this province are going to show up and be there to support Brampton,” Beato declared.

He says Unifor leadership is still working to find out exactly what Stellantis has planned for Brampton, but no information has been shared yet. 

Beato was not dissuaded by the recent news that Trump broke off trade talks with Canada when a tariff-related advertisement, paid for by the Ontario government, began running on American televisions last week. 

“At the end of the day if they’re not talking on a trade deal that’s probably a good thing because the trade deal wasn't going in a direction that was in our favour anyways, they were sacrificing the forestry and auto industry,” Beato says. “We are pushing the federal government to get to a deal that is not ‘dissecting our sectors’.

Unifor rallies will also be held outside the CAMI Automotive plant in Ingersoll to push back against GM’s decision to cancel its BrightDrop electric vehicle program planned for the facility. GM officials also plan to eliminate the third shift at the Oshawa Assembly in January. The moves impact thousands of workers at the two facilities. 

“It doesn’t stop at auto. Trump is taking aim at the foundation of Canada’s industrial economy–forestry, steel, aluminum, heavy duty truck and bus manufacturing and other sectors that sustain good, unionized, middle-class jobs in communities across this country,” Lana Payne, Unifor’s National President, warned. “As Trump tries to drag our jobs to the United States, we are reminded of a simple truth, these jobs, these communities, and these industries are ours to protect.”

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