For the 3,000 laid-off autoworkers at the Stellantis plant in Brampton, Ont., their future depends on one thing: having a car to build.

Before this fall, that vehicle was supposed to be the Jeep Compass. But in mid-October, the company announced it was scrapping plans to assemble the SUV in Canada. Instead, the automaker’s idle facility in Belvidere, Ill., will build it — a move two industry observers who spoke with CBC view as a means of appeasing the Trump administration amid a costly trade war.

Stellantis insists it’s working “constructively” with government officials and other stakeholders “on a plan for Brampton to find viable solutions that build a sustainable, long-term future for automotive manufacturing in Canada.”

Still, the decision has been met with broad condemnation n

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