A vehicle upper body structure includes an inner member and an outer member assembled together to form a roof side rail, a pillar and a roof cross rail joined together at a junction. The junction includes an inverted U-shaped reinforcement bracket having two legs joined to the inner member and a central web extending between the legs, and a reinforcement panel disposed between the inner and outer members and retained on an upper surface of the central web of the reinforcement bracket. The outer member is joined to an upper surface of the reinforcement panel.