Saturday, February 4, 2012

NDP Exploit EMD Workers?

Absolutely Pathetic!

"SUDBURY, Ont. - NDP MP Paul Dewar is hosting a fundraiser for workers who lost their jobs after an American company shut its plant in London, Ont., following a long labour dispute.

About 450 employees who were locked out a month ago lost their jobs at the Electro-Motive plant on Friday after the decision by owner and heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT).

Dewar, who is a NDP leadership candidate, has tweeted that $2,500 will be going to the now out-of-work employees.

He says the fundraising concert is a show of solidarity with the Electro-Motive employees and is urging people to ask the Prime Minister to defend Canadian jobs.

The fundraiser is being co-hosted by NDP MPs Charlie Angus, Claude Gravelle, and Glenn Thibeault at the Townehouse bar in Sudbury, Ont.

Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services said Friday that the cost structure at the London plant was unsustainable, even though Caterpillar last week reported a 58 per cent increase in its quarterly earnings with a record profit of nearly $5 billion."

Let's see, $2500 divided by 450 employees. That's what, $5.55 per worker? Is Dewar not going to share the money with the non-union emplyees of the plant who are also now looking for a job? Will fellow NDP MP Peggy Nash also show up? And if so, will she tell the EMD workers that if she is voted out in a federal election, she will be thinking of them if she returns again to her job-for-life with the CAW National making $100,000+ per year?

4 comments:

E Mac said...

If the famous Charlie Angus has his fingers in the pie, you guys are in for raft of trouble.
NDP wing nuts - always on the move.
This should be "simply wonderful."

dmorris said...

WHAT do the NDP,Union,and workers expect Stephen Harper to do about this situation?

There have been repeated and profane calls for the PM to "do something",....WHAT?

This is a matter between a private company and it's workers,none of the government's business.

Does the Union expect US to bail them out with more taxpayer subsidies?

I've got news for you folks,the general public has NO sympathy for you,especially here in B.C. where we have a recession in both forestry and construction.

Add to that Union, Eastern and Yankee activists trying to shut down the only bright spot in our economy,the pipelines, and I won't sully the page with the true description of our opinion of the London Cat employees.

You gambled foolishly that Cat would knuckle under,and you lost. Don't expect me and all the guys in construction here who've closed our companies or been laid off to have any sympathy with you.

It's a lean,mean new world out here and you had better adapt, or starve.

oxygentax said...

Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services said Friday that the cost structure at the London plant was unsustainable, even though Caterpillar last week reported a 58 per cent increase in its quarterly earnings with a record profit of nearly $5 billion."

What exactly does the fact that the parent company making a profit have to do with the cost structure in this particular plant? If this plant is losing money, it doesn't MATTER how much the parent company makes, it can't subsidize a money losing operation forever.

climatecriminal said...

what do you think Stephen Harper should do? Nationalize all industries, unionize all workers, make all "disadvantaged people" CEO's, managers, and supervisors, provide a perpetual income to all artists, outlaw private ownership, make everyone live in cities except for people in government run communes, disband all TV stations except CBC (which would be broadcast everywhere 24/7), get rid of all fossil fuel and put a 100 foot windmill on every street, get rid off all municipal goverment and replace them with peoples human rights commissions. These are just a few things that should be done (well at least in the deluded NDP/Union) world anyway.