WHITBY -- Hundreds of Canadian Auto Workers union members swarmed Jim Flaherty's campaign office on Monday morning to pile workboots at his door.
The footwear was collected from workers who didn't need the boots anymore because they no longer have jobs to wear the boots to, CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley said.
Four pickup trucks and a trailer full of boots were brought into the parking lot at Mr. Flaherty's campaign office. The contents were dumped at the doorstep of the office.
Workers from unions in Tilbury, Woodstock and Windsor travelled to Durham to bring home the CAW's message to vote ABC: anything but Conservative.
Protesters shouted "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Jim Flaherty has gotta go." They carried CAW flags and signs that took shots at the Conservative administration like: "Arrest Harper, he stole my job and my livelihood" and "Buy domestic, my son needs a job."
Mary Sue Hill, a CAW member, said she knows what it's like to feel insecure about her job. She moved to Oshawa from Windsor four years ago when the plant she was working at closed. She moved to Durham with high hopes of finding secure work at the General Motors truck plant, she said.
Now she's worried about her future again because the plant is slated to close in 2009. More than 2,000 workers at the plant have taken early retirement packages, which may mean she will be able to work in the car plant, but that's not the whole story, she said.
"Regardless of me keeping my job, we've lost about 3,000 jobs here that are never coming back," she said.
CAW national leader Ken Lewenza was at the protest and said more job losses would be coming in the future "unless we can stop every Tory out to destroy the working class."
Jim Flaherty's office issued a statement that said Mr. Flahery shared the concern of the workers who have been affected by manufacturing job losses in their communities.
Mr. Flaherty would be donating the work boots to the Salvation Army, the statement said. Mr. Flaherty was not available for comment because he was campaigning with Conservative candidates in other areas in Ontario, said Dan Miles, spokesman for Mr. Flaherty's office.
Mr. Buckley shook his head when he heard about the statement and said it was part of the CAW's plan to pack up the boots after the protest and donate them to a charitable organization.
"Jim Flaherty is not serious about this situation and his statements prove that," Mr. Buckley said.
Mr. Miles said that after the protest there were still boots left in front of the campaign office and they would be donated as planned.
At 1:30 p.m. on Monday there was still a pile of boots in front of the office. The Salvation Army had collected a truck load of footwear. A town of Whitby worker on the scene said they were collecting the remaining shoes and taking them to the dump.
-- with files from Stefanie Swinson, Metroland Durham Region
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