Comments by Stellantis CFO Doug Ostermann last week have heightened concerns about the company’s future in Brampton, where more than 3,000 workers remain off the job while the giant assembly plant stays closed for the third month in a row. 

During a conference call with analysts following first quarter financial results that saw the company’s revenue drop 14 percent compared to the same time last year, Ostermann said Stellantis has tough decisions to make amid the ongoing trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“As the situation evolves, we’ll need to calibrate our North American investments, footprint and employment to ensure the profitability of our company,” Ostermann stated.

During the call, the Chief Financial Officer confirmed the company was considering changes to its supply chains, in order to ease the blow from American tariffs, as reported by The Windsor Star.

He characterized the situation facing the giant multinational auto giant in North America as challenging.

These are not the kinds of words Brampton workers want to hear. 

The Stellantis auto assembly in Brampton employs more than 3,000 auto workers. Many fear the plant will be shuttered and moved to the U.S.

(Stellantis) 

The sudden closure of the Stellantis auto assembly in Brampton at the end of February triggered “grave concern” among Unifor members—3,200 had been working at the facility.

The decision by the automaker stopped work on the $1.3 billion retooling effort to equip the assembly to manufacture the next generation Jeep Compass as part of an agreement signed with the provincial and federal governments to accommodate electric vehicle production. Each provided $132 million to support the effort. 

In February, despite growing fears that Trump was strong-arming the Dutch-based conglomerate which includes Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Dodge, Peugeot and nine other global auto brands, Stellantis officials claimed the Brampton work stoppage was part of the retooling plan, and not Trump’s designs to force manufacturing south of the border.

More than a month later, there is still no clear indication from the company that the Brampton facility is safe.

The Pointer reached out to Stellantis Canada’s media representative, LouAnn Gosselin, to get an update on any plans by Stellantis to reopen the facility. She did not respond. 

Recent news that auto parts compliant with the Canadian United States Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) would be exempt from 25 percent tariffs sparked hope that the Brampton facility might reopen, but there has been no sign of that happening any time soon. 

The Pointer also reached out to Vito Beato, President of Unifor Local 1285 in Brampton. He did not comment on the latest exemption and how it might impact his members. He did not respond to questions about Stellantis’s future in the city, after the company’s CFO acknowledged last week that it is rethinking its North American supply chains amid challenging times.

Beato previously expressed concern to The Pointer about the company’s motivations behind what was announced as a temporary closure at the end of February as part of the electrification process. 

“When you look at this eight-week pause and you look at Stellantis removing all the skilled trades from the plant and leaving just a small number of people in there, a small number of our members, it's concerning to us,” he previously told The Pointer. He said that if the real issue was to reassess powertrain options, that did not explain why other transition work inside the assembly could not continue to ensure the retooling timeline stayed on track. 

“We can still be doing work in other facilities of the plant, like the body shop, stamping, or paint shop, and have our skilled trades do a lot of that work if the pause is just on powertrain issues and decisions on powertrain where we can still be doing a lot of work, so we are concerned in that regard."

The silence from the company has ratcheted up concerns among workers that tariff threats by Trump are triggering a widespread shift in the North American auto market, as the President demands automakers shift their operations south of the border. Last week, GM announced it would be cutting one of its shifts at its three-shift auto assembly in Oshawa as a result of the tariff threats. 

The new guidance issued by United States Customs and Border Protection last week stated auto parts that meet CUSMA standards are spared from the tariffs, giving partial relief to the country’s deeply interconnected automotive industry which has feared the economic impact of the tariffs for months. Levies on steel and aluminum remain in place.  

Unifor Local 1285 President Vito Beato told The Pointer last month that anxiety is running high among workers at the Brampton Assembly after a pause in the EV transition work by Stellantis.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

The 25 percent tariff forced Stellantis to pause operations at its Windsor plant for successive weeks.

Stellantis at the start of the year sold 32 acres of its sprawling Brampton property at 2000 Williams Parkway to Dream Industrial Limited for $80 million. While Stellantis described the sale as a part of an effort to streamline operations and optimize its real estate portfolio, the decision was quickly followed by the halt of work at the assembly for retooling, which sparked widespread concern. 

With Stellantis already prioritizing electric production of the Jeep Compass in Italy, the land sale sparked growing speculation that Brampton’s role in the company’s North American manufacturing strategy was being squeezed.

The CUSMA was implemented on July 1, 2020, to promote free trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Under the provisions of that historic deal, Canadian Border authorities issued a bulletin last week, May 1, that announced a zero percent tariff on auto parts "other than automobile knock-down kits or parts compilations, or that are not passenger vehicles (sedans, sport utility vehicles, crossover utility vehicles, minivans, and cargo vans) and light trucks."

The change came into effect after Trump signed an executive order on April 29 at the behest of frustrated auto executives who warned that dwindling North American markets would only get worse. Talking to reporters outside the White House, Trump said, “We just wanted to help them endure this little tension, short term. If they can’t get parts, we didn’t want to penalize them.”

In a fact sheet released by the White House on April 29, the Trump administration outlined a new incentive structure to boost domestic automobile production while maintaining a robust tariff stance. In a signed proclamation by the President, car makers who manufacture vehicles in the United States and maintain high levels of American or CUSMA auto parts will get a discount on the 25 percent tariff. For one year (from April 3, to April 30, 2026) they will get a tariff relief equal to 3.75 percent of the car’s retail price. 

Executives with General Motors, Stellantis and Ford have pushed the U.S. President for months to get rid of or dramatically reduce the tariffs on the auto sector, warning of billion-dollar losses to the industry and massive layoffs.

But the temporary relief has not yet stirred Stellantis to announce what the future will hold for its Brampton plant, as thousands of workers hang on every word uttered by the unpredictable American leader.

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