Canadian autoworkers at Stellantis have handed their union an overwhelming strike mandate. Unifor said Monday that 97.3 per cent of its roughly 9,000 members at the automaker voted on October 17–18 to authorize strike action if talks fail, with negotiations at an impasse since September 11.
The union is not yet in a legal strike position — no “No Board” report has been requested under Ontario labour law — but the vote sharply raises the pressure at the bargaining table. At the centre of the dispute is the future of the Brampton Assembly Plant, whose Jeep Compass production was shifted to Illinois after U.S. auto tariffs reshaped the company’s North American plans. Stellantis intends to sell the Brampton plant to armoured-vehicle maker Roshel, a move the union is fighting.
Unifor National President Lana Payne said members are “united in their determination to reach a fair agreement” that protects jobs for Canadian autoworkers. The Brampton plant has been one of the most visible casualties of the tariff war’s reordering of the auto industry, and its fate has become a test case for how much production Canada can hold onto.
For the thousands of families tied to the plant and its suppliers, the mandate vote is less a countdown to a walkout than a signal: the union wants a deal that keeps work in Brampton, and it now has its members’ near-unanimous backing to push for one.
