Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Rally

Brian has emailed me regarding the rally:

----------------------------------------------------
Regarding the Rally!

May 23, 2007
11am at Genfast
45 Minutes in Length
12pm Rally at "To be announced" Plant in Brantford
Approx 30 minutes in Length.
Rally in Plant "to be announced" in Peel.

You can participate at each event individually. After the Genfast Rally,
we will name the plant that we are going to within Brantford. You can
ride the Coach to or take your own vehicle should you choose. You can
also go back to work, school, or whatever plans you have. Also, If I
know that you cannot attend the Genfast Rally, but wish to participate
in the rest of the rally, I will do my best to forward you the
information as to where we will be going. You can participate in the 2nd
rally and grab the bus to the 3rd should you like. I have no idea if
there are going to be enough seats available, If I receive enough
information from former Genfast employees that many of us want to go to
all the events then we will have to see if we have enough Coaches. Also
with the recent announcement of another Bankruptcy, there may be even
more "displaced" workers coming out.

If you know 100% that you are going to go to the
1) The Genfast Rally
2) The 2nd Brantford Rally
3) The Rally in Peel

Please email me,

-----------------------------------------------------------

Brian's email is madmax@bfree.on.ca


later dave
Posted by at

2 comments:

Brian Van Tilborg said...

MAY 23, 2007 - 10:40 ET

BRANTFORD - WORKERS DEMONSTRATE AT GENFAST

TO PROTEST MCGUINTY'S FAILURE TO ACT ON THE MANUFACTURING JOBS CRISIS


TORONTO--(CCNMatthews - May 23, 2007) - Workers demonstrated today at Genfast Manufacturing at 225 Henry Street in Brantford. Workers are fed up with the silence coming from Queen's Park as manufacturing job losses mount.
"The first thing that needs to happen to help all the workers in the manufacturing sector is the Premier has to acknowledge that there's a very real crisis. Then this government must act," said Wayne Fraser, United Steelworkers Director for Ontario. "The Premier has the power to set in place a real Job Strategy for this province but he lacks the will to do it. Even when he knows that one in ten manufacturing jobs have been wiped out in Ontario he still won't act."
Genfast closed its doors on April 5, 2007 the production from this profitable plant was all moved to the parent company MNP in Michigan. MNP has since opened new plants in China. The workers didn't receive their last two weeks pay, vacation pay, or any sort of severance at all.
"Where is Dalton McGuinty?" Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour asked. "We think that McGuinty should come to Brantford and face the people and communities that are going through the plant closings. The government must act."

May 23, 2007 at 7:13 PM
Brian Van Tilborg said...

Regarding the Rally on the 23rd.
Three plants were the subject of job loss rallies. At Genfast we had around 150 people, I stopped counting at 130, and had guessed we could if lucky draw 75 to 90. There is a picture in the paper, which shows the gravestones that the steelworkers whom arrived on busses from Hamilton had brought. There was one for Genfast. The photo makes it appear that the "gathering was a dozen or so" but it makes no difference. A picture is worth it for the publicity alone. The buses and other local rally attendees then went to Koolatron. They lost a contract to Canadian Tire. Different problems then ours, but job loss is difficult for any family regardless of the circumstances that face the company. There were more buses at this location from London to support the Koolatron Employees.
No reporters or cameras attended this event as far as I could tell. If I recall correctly the Expositor didn't have an available reporter over the 2.5 hours these demonstrations were occurring in Brantford. Andrea Horwath made the trek from Hamilton as well to say what an abysmal job the Liberals were doing, and that they are in denial of the crises in manufacturing.

After Koolatron, the Steelworker buses went to Peel to a company called Masonite. This company made double digit profits and was purchased by an American Firm which decided plant closure was necessary. No severance was being offered. At the rally, the buses were joined by more and more buses, and the afternoon shift, then took over the plant with the rest of the people in the rally. The police arrived, and I believe they were somewhat shocked at the number of people inside the plant and outside the plant.

As the busses were held up, Wayne Fraser worked on a severance package for the employees, until another bus of steelworkers arrived from Sudbury. Late into the evening a deal was struck.

May 25, 2007 at 7:54 PM

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