Unifor Says Stellantis Has Sold Idled Brampton Plant to Roshel. Neither Company Will Confirm It

Unifor says it believes Stellantis has sold its idled Brampton Assembly Plant to Brampton-based armoured-vehicle maker Roshel Inc. Neither company will confirm it. The union met the automaker on Friday to ask about reports of a sale, and Stellantis "would not confirm or deny whether it has finalized the sale. Further, it would not provide a timeline to address this question," Unifor's bargaining team said in a statement reported by Global News.

"Unifor is interpreting this refusal as confirmation that the Brampton Assembly Plant has been sold," Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a statement to The Globe and Mail. Spokespeople for Stellantis and Roshel said in separate statements that they had "nothing to announce," The Canadian Press reported.

A sale and a leaseback, according to a source

A source familiar with the matter told The Globe on Friday that the sale is expected to be announced early in the coming week. The source said the plan is for Stellantis to sell the plant to Roshel and lease it back for production purposes. It is not clear what Stellantis would do with the plant. The same source said Stellantis would also pay back the federal money it received to retool the plant after it closed in 2023.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and the office of Industry Minister Mélanie Joly did not respond to The Globe's e-mails. Global News said it also contacted the industry ministry but did not get a response before publication.

Three years in limbo

More than 2,000 workers were laid off when the Brampton plant halted operations in 2023. Retooling for Jeep production began early in 2024, but the company paused it in early 2025 and later moved Jeep Compass production to the United States, CBC News reported. The union called the move a violation of its collective agreement. Ottawa said it broke the terms of Stellantis's funding arrangement, according to The Globe.

Stellantis announced a memorandum of understanding with Roshel in September. At the time, Stellantis Canada chief executive Trevor Longley said Roshel "represents a strong path to restoring sustainable operations at Brampton Assembly," CBC reported. Roshel chief executive Roman Shimonov said laid-off workers would get first consideration for jobs. He said they could return to work through the federal government's Light Utility Vehicles procurement program and other automotive and defence work, and that the company planned "to bring over 2000 jobs" to the facility, including production of ballistic steel.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown called the planned sale "yet another broken commitment" from Stellantis. "Stellantis should not be allowed to take federal money and abandon Brampton and Canada," he said in September, per CBC.

Bargaining stalled, strike mandate in hand

The plant's future has stalled contract talks. Unifor walked away from the table on Sept. 11, and members later voted 97 per cent in favour of a strike mandate, The Globe reported. The union represents more than 9,000 Stellantis workers in Canada. It is not yet in a legal strike position because neither side has requested a no-board report from the conciliator. A strike or lockout cannot start until 17 days after that report. A work stoppage would include the Windsor assembly plant and the company's casting plant in Toronto.

On Nov. 4, Payne wrote to Joly and Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli asking for an urgent four-party meeting with Stellantis and both governments. "Unifor does not accept the closure and sale of the Brampton Assembly Plant," she wrote. She added that Stellantis and federal officials had held months of bilateral talks that Unifor was not part of. Two weeks earlier, the union had welcomed a $2.5-billion federal and Ontario support package for the auto industry and urged governments to focus on Brampton.

What a defence plant would mean

Fraser Johnson, a professor at Western University's Ivey School of Business, told The Globe that "Stellantis globally has huge problems with poor profits, low vehicle sales and too much capacity." He said U.S. tariffs made the case for running the plant even weaker. He described the facility as a rare chance for Roshel to buy a world-class plant. He also said a Roshel operation, with its relatively small production runs of armoured vehicles, would not bring the same jobs, supplier purchases or other economic benefits as auto assembly. "There's a significant number of people affected by this," he said.

If the source is right, a formal announcement could come within days. Until then, the workers on layoff in Brampton still have no official word from either company.