By Courtney Duffett
The Oshawa Express
From Windsor to Oakville, St.
Catharines to Brampton, thousands
came to Oshawa on Sunday to
protest the loss of manufacturing
jobs across the country.
Buses poured in from across
Ontario and brought protestors
ready to join local residents in a
march through Oshawa’s streets
toward a rally at Memorial Park.
“We have a crisis in our auto
industry,” says Chris Buckley,
president of CAW Local 222, who
addressed the crowd.
“Our country
is bleeding.”
Buckley adds that some 400,000
manufacturing jobs have left
Canada in the last five years with
some 132,000 lost jobs over the
last 12 months.“The job losses have had a large
impact on workers and our worker’s families yet our government their communities,” he says.
In the last two years, Oshawa
alone has lost some 10,400 jobs in
the manufacturing sector.
“All our futures depend on
this,” says Buckley. “If we don’t
fight, the middle
class will be eliminated.”
The auto industry
is Canada’s
largest exporter
accounting for $70
billion of the
nation’s total
exports in 2007.
The auto industry
exports are even
higher than those
of the oil and gas
industry, according
to CAW Local 222 statistics.
The
auto assembly and parts manufacturing
industries employ some
135,000 people in Canada. And
thousands more jobs are created to
supply the industry, including jobs
in steel, plastics and other manufacturing
and services.
However, there has been a significant
drop in manufacturing jobs
with approximately 149,000 people
employed in the auto assembly
and parts manufacturing industry
in 2002 in Canada.“Enough is enough,” says Keith
Osborne, union chair for the GM
Shop Committee.
“The fight starts
against the government today.”
There are two assembly plants
and dozens of auto parts facilities
in Oshawa alone.
Major employers
include General
Motors, AGS
Automotive, PPG
Canada, Syncreon
A u t o m o t i v e ,
Johnson Controls
and Lear.
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