Canadian Stellantis employees moved one step closer to a strike over the weekend.
On Monday, Oct. 19, Unifor announced that its represented workforce at Stellantis overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote. According to the union, 97.3% of the Stellantis membership approved a potential strike as the automaker and union duke it out over the contract talks, which have been deadlocked for over a month.
The union is not yet in legal strike position, as Canadian labor law mandates that either the company or union must indicate to the government that formal negotiations are not working. No such alert has been filed yet, the union said.
The news comes after contract talks between Stellantis and Unifor ground to a halt on Sept. 11 as Stellantis furthered
plans to sell the Brampton Assembly Plant near Toronto, which employs over 2,000 Unifor members. In the union's previous contract, Stellantis committed to building the Jeep Compass at the plant. In October 2025, it reneged on that agreement and moved production of the Compass to the United States to avoid tariffs.
Since then, the automaker entered a memorandum of understanding with Roshel, a defense contractor, to sell the plant. Unifor National President Lana Payne said the closure of the Brampton Plant would make it the first facility to fall in the ongoing trade war between the United States and Canada.
Stellantis Canada spokesperson Lou Ann Gosselin, in an emailed statement to the Detroit Free Press, said the automaker "remains committed to bargaining in good faith and is prepared to continue discussions toward a negotiated agreement that recognizes the contributions of our employees while supporting the long-term competitiveness of our Canadian operations."
Unifor Stellantis Master Bargaining Chairperson James Stewart said that he sees a strike "as a last resort," but he added that his union is not willing to concede the thousands of jobs in Brampton.
"We will not back down and accept a deal that weakens Stellantis’ footprint within Canada’s auto industry due to broken commitments that further cause devastation for our members, families and communities that rely on good union auto jobs,” Stewart said.
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Union approves striking Stellantis by 97.3% as negotiations fall apart
