Organizers want to send a message to politicians
Jun 02, 2008 - 04:23 PM
By Melissa Mancini
OSHAWA -- Several thousand people sent a message to the feds this weekend: help the auto industry.
The Canadian Auto Workers wants the government to stand up and start paying attention to the root causes of the declining Canadian auto industry, said Chris Buckley, CAW Local 222 president.
To send the message to politicians, the CAW hosted a protest march on June 1. The rally started at the Midtown Mall. The crowd travelled up John Street to Memorial Park where the protest ended.
The rally came days after Statistics Canada reported the number of regular Employment Insurance beneficiaries increased by 56 per cent over last year in the Census Metropolitan Area of Oshawa, which includes Clarington and Whitby.
“If that doesn’t send a strong message that there is a problem, I don’t know what does,” Mr. Buckley said.
High gas prices, the strong dollar and trade policies are among the industry’s problems and the upper levels of government need to address them, Mr. Buckley said.
In the past two years, Oshawa has lost 10,800 manufacturing jobs, Mr. Buckley said. He said the negative impact of layoffs and unemployment are felt throughout the community because it means less money in the tax pot.
“For some reason the government doesn’t see this as a crisis,” he said.
Mr. Buckley said the CAW has done what it can do as a union to address the issues and save as many jobs as possible and now it is the government’s turn to address the problems. Literature was handed out at the event with the addresses and phone numbers of local politicians to encourage participants to continue communicating their concerns, said Mr. Buckley.
“Contact them and remind them of the jobless,” he said.
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