Nov 10, 2026
For Stellantis workers in Ontario, the uncertainty is no longer theoretical. Their union now believes the automaker has quietly sold the idled Brampton Assembly Plant, the facility at the centre of stalled contract talks since September.
Unifor’s suspicion comes from what Stellantis didn’t say. It also arrives at the same time contract talks are frozen and members have already authorized a strike. The Brampton plant has been the main sticking point in bargaining since September.
What did Unifor say about the suspected sale?
Unifor says its bargaining team met with Stellantis on Nov. 6 to ask about reports that the plant had been sold. “Stellantis would not confirm or deny whether it has finalized the sale,” the union said in a statement, adding that the company also wouldn’t provide a timeline for an answer. The union says it is treating that refusal as confirmation of a sale.
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The sale is expected to be announced early this week, a source told The Globe and Mail. Stellantis and Roshel, the Brampton-based armoured vehicle maker that signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the plant in September, have both said they have nothing to announce.
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How did the Brampton plant end up on the market?
The Brampton plant was supposed to have a future in auto manufacturing. Under the 2023 contract between Unifor and Stellantis, Brampton was to build the next-generation Jeep Compass after retooling, with a forecast return to three shifts and 2,730 workers by the third quarter of 2026.
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But the plant instead halted operations in 2023 and more than 2,000 workers were laid off. In October 2025, Stellantis moved the Compass program to the U.S. Unifor’s Stellantis Council called that decision “an egregious violation” of the company’s collective agreement commitments.
On Sept. 11, 2026, Stellantis announced it had signed the MOU with Roshel. Stellantis Canada CEO Trevor Longley said at the time that the company considered several options and sees Roshel as “a strong path to restoring sustainable operations” at the site. Unifor national president Lana Payne called a potential sale “a disaster-scenario” for Canada’s auto industry.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was equally critical of the sale. If Stellantis is pulling out, he said, “it is a betrayal of our workers, their families, and every Canadian taxpayer.”
Why is the sale holding up contract talks?
Unifor walked away from the bargaining table in September over the planned sale and has said there will be no tentative deal without a resolution for Brampton workers. Payne has also written to Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, urging the federal government to block the sale and to clarify whether the MOU breached commitments Stellantis made to the federal government.
Members raised the stakes in an Oct. 17 and 18 vote, in which 97.3% of participating members backed authorizing strike action if needed. However, the union isn’t yet in a legal strike position, because neither side has requested a No Board report from the province.
What happens next?
A formal announcement of the sale of the Brampton plant could come within days. Unifor, Stellantis and government officials are still talking, but, so far, bargaining has not resumed, and it’s unclear whether the union will move toward a strike.
The pressure isn’t limited to Brampton. Production at Windsor Assembly, Stellantis’s only active Canadian assembly plant, has been halted for four consecutive weeks, and the company has cited tariffs and volume as the reason.
Fraser Johnson, a professor at Western University’s Ivey School of Business, told The Globe and Mail that the sale appears to be part of Stellantis’s effort to address company-wide challenges, adding that, for Roshel, a facility of this calibre is a rare opportunity.
For Unifor, the open question is whether a done deal leaves anything at Brampton to bargain over, or whether the fight shifts to protecting jobs at the plants Stellantis still runs in Canada.
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
