Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) down in Oshawa are blockading their soon to be defunct GM truck plant. GM recently announced they are closing the gas guzzler plant in 2009 and gave layoff notices to all the workers. Seems the economy won’t support these behemoths anymore, and the public is telling GM with it’s wallet – the trucks just don’t sell in the numbers they used to. I read sales are down as much as 39% in the last year – this was BEFORE the huge gas price hikes here in Ontario. The truck/SUV crunch is so bad, GM is closing not just the Canadian plant but the ones in the US and Mexico. So what are the workers doing? Saving their pennies in anticipation of layoffs? Looking for employment? Pressuring for aid in creating new jobs? Going to work so they can save their pennies? Not on your Nellie! They are blockading the plant so no work can occur. Bright bulbs down there eh? The CAW wants GM to keep the plant open to 2011 and are using strong arm tactics to make this happen, there was even talk of a strike (oh wouldn’t that make the GM management happy, fewer pay-cheques!) and now the union is promising “We’ve got all kinds of things up our sleeves”. My mind shutters at such nonsense talk. The plant is losing a ton of money, and there is no market for the product, so let’s keep making the trucks so they can sit on a lot, rusting in the Canadian weather. Good plan there folks. Lots of forward thinking.

The time of the big truck has passed. All this stupidity being spewed about forcing the company to keep the plant open won’t help. The jobs are gone, it’s time to move into another sector. Yes I realize your next job won’t pay as well. I had a hard time pinning down how much the workers were making down there – anywhere from $35 for entry level jobs to $70hr for experienced workers. All I know is this is way too much money for unskilled labour. Nurses get paid less than CAW members get paid – to me that is just nuts. I got into an argument with a CAW supporter last week, and he kept saying well they work hard for their money. And the rest of the world doesn’t? Are you telling me a night shift nurse doesn’t work hard? Tell that to them at 7am after a full night. I think the average nurse might just want to rip you a new one. You want to work hard? Go work in a restaurant waiting tables – you don’t even get paid minimum wage and the tips often don’t bridge the gap. Let’s not even discuss the level of abuse you take as a waiter/waitress. THAT’S HARD WORK! This argument makes me see red. CAW members were grossly overpaid, and while that is not the driving reason for the truck sales drops, it sure hasn’t helped.

I feel for the families that are going to be out of work in a year. I also feel for the spin off job loss that will happen. BUT, the writing was on the wall a long time ago. These big, inefficient vehicles, manufactured by the same company that thought the HUMMER, Civilian Crusher Version, was a great idea, are too expensive to run, and chuck way too much pollution into the air. Do you really need a 1/2 ton truck to go pick up milk and cookies at the store? People are concerned about pollution and gas prices. As someone who has suffered through many pollution alerts, I am not shedding a tear for this change in the public attitude. It has been too long in coming. Either we change our habits, or we die. Smaller, more fuel efficient cars that don’t send as much pollution into the air will only benefit us, not hurt us. GM didn’t listen and now it’s paying the piper.

I’ve been reading the editorials and am fed up with the whining and complaining about people buying “crap foreign, Asian cars” instead of Canadian trucks. Wake up you jackasses! GM is not a Canadian company, nor is Ford or any of the rest of them. As for crap? I think the little cars won the battle because the companies LISTENED TO THE BLOODY MARKET! Instead of being inflexible and saying Americans won’t buy small, the Japanese car makers set up car plants here in Canada and have been slowly expanding ever since. Their marketing people looked at the same stats that the Big 3 American car makers looked at and interpreted them correctly. They saw a need for fuel efficient cars and filled that need. What did GM and the rest do? Kept churning out gas guzzlers. Big, dangerous gas, guzzlers. Not hard to guess who is winning the battle?

So CAW, don’t even think of trying to get the Ontario government to strong arm GM into keeping a money losing plant open. This will be a huge waste of tax payers money. Money better spent elsewhere, like on our struggling farmers, poor working class, hungry children in low income families, FLIPPING SCHOOL BOOKS, anything but a damned bunch of trucks that shouldn’t be on the road to begin with. How about being creative instead? Ask for funds to set up alternative employment – oh yes and this also means no more big pay cheques, and welcome back into the real world. Stop screaming for an unrealistic goal and plan now for the future, cause it’s roaring up in your rear view mirror right now.

Stumble it!