Stellantis workers from Brampton eye future in Windsor

I've never done anything like this in my life. It was a big move, you know, four hours away from my family, my girlfriend, my friends, everybody, you know, kind of leaving them behind. It's a hard pill to swallow for workers like Christian Carmelidis. He's one of hundreds from Brampton who made a move to Windsor. This was after Stellantis' Brampton plant paused its retooling for the Jeep Compass and later announced it would be moving its production to Illinois. Laid-off workers there had been waiting to come back since 2023. The length of the layoff was obviously a lot more than expected. We didn't think that we'd be off for so long. Early in 2026, the Windsor Assembly plant added a third shift. That gave workers like Carmelidis the opportunity to work again. More than 200 from Brampton would make the move. The opportunity to go down to Windsor was kind of a way to... You know, continue employment, stay within the company and keep working for the time being with, you know, the expectation that we were going back to Brampton. But now that a purchase agreement for the Brampton plant is in place, it's a hope that's fading, but not extinguished. We're going to hold on to faith as long as we can. Everything that we're seeing from the news and whatnot about, you know, the sale isn't quite final and that maybe there's hope. But I know it's. A lot of people just wishing that this isn't happening and that they're going to hope something can maybe change, somebody can pull through and make something happen. The president of the union representing workers in Windsor says it's terrible news for the workers from Brampton, and it's a driving factor in the ongoing negotiations with the company over their new collective agreement. Finding security for that third shift, or at least greater security than exists today. But it goes beyond that. It's making sure that Windsor and Stellantis is committed. To Windsor and Etobicoke and our other facilities. And we don't know, you know, yet until we resolve all of this, how that looks moving forward. For Carmelitas, it means keeping his job here, even if it means living away from those he loves. It'll probably mean my future stays in Windsor and... I have to make the trips back and forth to see family when, you know, over holidays and stuff like that. And with the fate of the Brampton plant becoming clear, he says he's speaking with his girlfriend about joining him in Windsor to start their life together here. Jacob Barker, CBC News, Windsor.