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The union representing over 6,000 workers at Stellantis’ Windsor Assembly plant is set to begin collective bargaining with the company on Tuesday.
Stellantis is the last of the Big 3 automakers to head to the bargaining table with Unifor.
Negotiations officially kick off at 11:00 a.m., according to a video statement posted to social media by Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart.
The current collective agreement expires at midnight on Sept. 20, but Stewart said negotiators are pushing to complete an agreement sooner, ahead of a two-week shut-down of the Windsor Assembly Plant at the end of September.
“We’re going to work right through Labour Day, we’re not coming home, we’re going to continue to bargain to try and achieve an internal deadline of Sept. 11,” said Stewart.
The talks come at a challenging moment for Windsor’s automotive sector, which has faced steep U.S. tariffs on vehicles and parts exported to the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to increase those tariffs to 50 per cent effective Jan. 1.
Unifor members voted to ratify a new deal with General Motors on Sunday, which established wage increases for production and skilled trades workers, a $10,000 productivity bonus, and the renewal of a cost-of-living allowance.
Union members at Ford ratified a new deal with the company in July, which also included wage increases and a cost-of-living allowance renewal, as well as planned investments in Canadian manufacturing.
Brampton assembly remains central to discussions
Central to the union’s goal with Stellantis is securing future production allocations for both the Windsor Assembly Plant and the company’s idled Brampton plant, Stewart said.
Around 2,200 Brampton workers are currently laid off, and Unifor said Stellantis recently informed it that the company is considering selling the plant — a prospect Unifor National President Lana Payne called a “gut punch” to the Canadian automotive industry.
Stewart acknowledged in his video the challenges facing negotiators as a result of the trade pressure from the Trump administration.
“We are in the fight for our lives,” said Stewart. “There’s no doubt the U.S. administration has said multiple times […] they don’t want us to have an auto industry. They don’t want our cars. They don’t want our parts. So we are really in a difficult time, but we are committed.”
