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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080126.RCAW26/TPStory/Business
CAW occupies plant over severance pay
GREG KEENAN
AUTO INDUSTRY REPORTER
January 26, 2008
Members of the Canadian Auto Workers union occupied a tool-and-die
making plant in Kitchener, Ont., yesterday in a bid to force creditors
of the closed operation to pay severance to workers.
"We are going to make sure that our workers get all the severance pay
they are entitled to," Jerry Dias, an assistant to CAW president Buzz
Hargrove, said yesterday from inside Ledco Ltd., which shut down
earlier this week.
About 40 union members took over the building to prevent creditors
from removing equipment from the plant, which was shut earlier this
week.
Mr. Dias, who is the CAW national official responsible for the parts
industry, said Ledco shut its doors because the 62-per-cent surge in
the value of the Canadian dollar in the past four years has made it
impossible to compete and led to losses of $5-million in the past five
years.
"They said: 'We just can't handle it,' " Mr. Dias said yesterday.
Workers had refused to go along with a demand that they take a 25-per-
cent pay cut, although reports said one small group of workers held an
informal vote and agreed to the cuts.
The CAW has a no-concessions policy.
Wage cuts by the 40 unionized employees would have saved the company
$10,000 a week, which would not have been enough to save the company,
Mr. Dias said.
The company, which employed about 65 people in total when it closed
this week, built tools and stampings for Cooper Standard Automotive
Inc. and other auto parts makers.
It's the latest of dozens of plant closings that have rippled through
the auto parts sector, and manufacturing as a whole. Auto-dependent
communities in Quebec and southern Ontario have been battered by the
rise in the value of the Canadian dollar, and market share declines
and production cuts in Canada and the United States by the Detroit
Three auto makers, Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors
Corp. |
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:54 pm |
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last time here
Guest
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$100.00 says that equipment goes to india or china!!! |
_________________ Guest post |
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:41 pm |
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