The Face of Poverty in York Region: A Community Forum
April 9-10, 2003
John Cartwright, President
Toronto and York Region Labour Council

I am pleased that this community forum is shining a harsh light on the poverty that is too often denied and hidden in York Region.

The Toronto and York Region Labour Council is the collective voice at the municipal level for private and public sector workers.

We have two projects. Labour Community Services is a partnership between the Labour Council and United Way Toronto and United Way of York Region. LCS has over 20 years experience in community and education services. LCS trains and supports union members as peer counsellors in the union and workplace. These union counsellors link workers in need with community supports. Labour Community Services also trains and supports union members as community volunteers and activists.

Our second project is the Labour Education Centre. LEC receives federal funding to deliver employment services to unemployed workers. With provincial funding, they deliver Literacy and Basic Skills classes to unemployed and employed workers in the community. For over 15 years, LEC has delivered a wide variety of education programs and services to unions and central labour bodies.

Our Labour Council represents 180,000 workers from hundreds of local unions in York Region and Toronto. We are childcare workers, steelworkers, teachers, construction workers, municipal, provincial and federal government employees, supermarket cashiers. We are community agency staff, postal workers, hotel workers -- such as the members of the United Food and Commercial Workers who work at this hotel.

Today I want to talk about 1390 of those workers -- plus one, workers from the auto parts manufacturing and distribution sector of York Region.

The York Region government website has a page listing York Region's Top Employers. Number one on the list is Magna International.

According to the website, Magna International employs 9,938 people in York Region's auto parts sector. Magna, founded by Frank Stronach, has been in the news a lot lately. Former Premier Mike Harris was recently appointed to its Board of Directors. Current Premier Ernie Eves chose Magna as the setting to deliver his government's so-called budget. And then last week in the Toronto Star, this article: Stronach pockets $58.1 million more (April 4, 2003).

As company Chairman and consultant, Frank Stronach's compensation for a 40 hour work week works out to $27,932 per hour, more in one hour than many earn in a whole year. Daughter Belinda Stronach is now Magna chief executive officer. Her compensation last year was a measly $9.05 million, only $4,350 per hour based on a 40-hour week.

I said I was going to tell you about 1390 workers, plus one. The plus one is a man named Poster, a worker laid off from Magna's Pullmatic plant in York Region.

Like almost all Magna operations, there is no union at Pullmatic. Even though Poster was not a union member, he came to our Labour Council's project, the Labour Education Centre, for help. Last week he attended a computer job search class there; one of many employment services our Centre offers.

Poster immigrated from Congo to Canada in 1986. He lives in York Region and worked as a finisher at Pullmatic. Pullmatic manufactures auto parts and employed over 350 workers. Poster earned $15.75 an hour on the night shift, a far cry from the astronomical sums given to the Stronachs.

Poster was among 55 workers laid off from Pullmatic in February 2001. Pullmatic-Magna provided no assistance to the workers being laid off. Poster says: "There were no services, no help. With no union, there's no one to fight for you, to help save the jobs."

Poster has been unemployed since then. His Employment Insurance benefits have ended. With no income and no support outside of a close friend, Poster says it's difficult paying rent, paying bills. It's hard to pay for transportation to look for a new job.

To this forum, Poster wants to say: too many people are losing their jobs. We need to ask the government to create more jobs.

We echo Poster's call. Our Labour Council, like the labour movement across the country, fights for decent jobs at a living wage for all Canadians. And we also fought for, and won, government funding to deliver labour adjustment services for unemployed workers.

What is adjustment? Media messages, government and corporate approaches to adjustment put the job loss focus on the individual. Unemployment, they suggest, is the individual's fault, the individual's responsibility to solve.

In contrast, labour promotes a collective response to job loss. Workers have virtually no control over unemployment. Corporations decide whether or not we lose our jobs. Often it is only collective action that can reverse such corporate or government decisions.

A union approach to adjustment looks to find new jobs that have comparable wages and working conditions to the job that was lost. A union approach to adjustment is sensitive to the diverse needs of the workers. When layoffs hit, the union helps organize adjustment services. Let's look at what this means in York Region today.

Queen worked at Visteon Automotive Systems, number 12 on York Region's list of "Top Employers." She immigrated to Canada from Vietnam in 1979. Queen worked as an assembler at Visteon for almost 21 years. The Visteon workers are members of the International Association of Machinists. As a union member, Queen's wage rate was $18.99 per hour, over $3 more per hour than Poster's.

Last August, Queen was one of 1100 workers laid off. Visteon closed this profit-making plant and moved production to a low- wage area in the United States.

Unlike Poster at Magna's Pullmatic plant, Queen's union is helping the laid off workers. A union-run Action Centre was set up with the help of Labour Council's project, the Labour Education Centre. At the Action Centre, Queen has taken a resume writing workshop and basic computer course. Other workers have attended English classes, various job search workshops and counselling services.

In January this year, Queen's family suffered another blow. Her husband's workplace also closed, throwing 100-150 workers out of work. With two teenagers, Queen says it's harder now to pay the mortgage. And it's particularly hard to find a job near the same pay with benefits.

Similar problems face 90 workers laid off just over a month ago. They worked at the NAPA auto parts distribution centre in Vaughan. This profitable company paid its unionized workers $16 an hour. But these days it's not enough to be profitable, or even very profitable. This American owned company wanted more. They closed their operation in York Region. They built a new distribution centre in Cambridge and hired non-union workers at $12-$13 an hour.

Chris from the Canadian Auto Workers/NAPA Action Centre describes some of the problems: "most of our members can't find work at the same pay. With their education levels, most are looking at current wages of $8-$9 an hour with no benefits. That can't cut it ; we have mortgages, kids. Another problem is the lack of permanent work. People are finding they have to get jobs through temp agencies."

The same picture is painted by Pat from the Exide Action Centre. Exide was a York Region manufacturer of auto and heavy duty batteries. Exide employed over 200 workers, members of the Canadian Auto Workers union. They earned from $17 to $23 an hour. About two-thirds of the workforce had worked at Exide over 20 years. For several it was their lifetime job.

In the fall of 2001, most workers were on temporary layoff. The company was half-way through a retrofit when 9-11 hit. Two large customers -- Cisco and Northern Telecom -- cancelled orders. By January 2002 the company was bankrupt. Many Exide workers will never see the severance payments to which they are legally entitled. Why? In their first term of office, the Ontario Conservative government eliminated wage-loss protection for workers owed wages due to bankruptcy.

The closure hit hard. Expecting to be recalled, the Exide workers hadn't looked for new jobs. After the bankruptcy, their Employment Insurance claims were soon exhausted. Many have had to sell their homes, even their cars. Several have gone on welfare. A quarter of the workers are still out of work.

Pat from the Exide Action Centre describes some of the problems. The Exide workers face many barriers: low education and skill levels. Some face language barriers. Like the NAPA workers, they're finding it near impossible to find jobs at their old pay rate. $7-$8 an hour is often the rule.

Again, temporary, contract jobs are more prevalent in today's job market. We may think of small companies or agencies when we hear the term "contract" jobs. But that's just part of the picture. For example, one of the laid off workers got a contract job at the Honda plant in Alliston. At the end of his contract, he was offered a second contract. He was given the hope of full-time work after that. But after the second came a third contract.

Obviously companies prefer the contingent worker. Usually:

no severance commitment
no benefits
lower wages
no sick leave, vacations, pensions, training
always higher profits for the corporations
Many Exide workers are encountering age discrimination. Recently for example, four Exide workers were interviewed for jobs at a particular workplace. Two were hired, though they had less experience and fewer qualifications than the two not hired. But, they were in their 30s. The more experienced and qualified workers were over 40.

This is all too common. Age discrimination against workers over 40 is a big barrier. LEC staff helping at the Visteon Action Centre describe a recent experience. A large company doing work similar to Visteon was hiring. Many laid-off Visteon workers were invited to attend an information session. This session was used to screen out workers over 40 and to screen out those with weak English language skills. Only the younger, English-fluent workers made it to the next hiring level.

Many who have lost their jobs are long-term workers. They often have over 20 years of work experience. They need a lot of help to cope with the changes in the hiring process. They don't know what a resume is. They never had to go through an interview when they were hired. They haven't used a computer -- especially not the internet for job search purposes. They've never encountered the increasingly common practice of employers using agencies to hire new employees.

There's another barrier illustrated in the Visteon experience. In a unionized workplace, the union ensures that workers injured on the job are given modified work to accommodate the effects of their injury. A common example: you hurt your back, and you're assigned to a lighter job. You're working fine and no longer fit under WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board). But now the plant's closed, you're laid off. No one wants to hire you if you require modified work.

Exide, Visteon, NAPA -- these aren't the only recent closures in York Region. Everest and Jennings manufactured wheelchairs. Well over one hundred workers, members of the United Steelworkers, lost their jobs when the company went bankrupt.

As Chris from the CAW/NAPA Action Centre says: "workers are disposable."

Is this not outrageous? In York Region, in Ontario, in this land of tremendous natural resources and skilled, experienced and educated workers, there is no moral or rational justification for poverty.

This forum brings together many community and labour groups, agencies and others to share their knowledge and insight. We're here because we care, because we want to improve the lives of all our residents. We want to lessen the impact of poverty and indeed to eliminate poverty.

Hopefully our dialogue yesterday evening and today will lead to continuing exchange and common action toward that end.