A Niagara At Large News Brief
As if Fort Erie, Ontario has not taken enough hits in the last year with the provincial government’s closing of the Slots and Ontario Visitors Centre, and the 115-year-old Fort Erie Race Track closed unless private investors come forward or the province agrees to a rescue, now a printing plant has suddenly closed down, costing about 100 jobs.
The printing plant, owned by Vertis Communications, an American company, and operated in the Fort Erie community of Stevensville, was shut down this past Wednesday, January 16, leaving everyone working there without any further pay or benefits, according to a January 17 media release from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) representing the plant’s employees. Vertis had been going through bankruptcy proceedings and the Fort Erie plant and while it has issued no official comment, the Fort Erie plant, which previously operated under the name American Color Graphics, has obviously become a casualty.
The union is not taking the sudden way the plant was closed sitting down, however. “A company does not have the right to shut down without notice or compensation for the employees that have worked for them, many for most of their lives,” stated Dan Wickson, president of the CEP local representing the workers.”
“The union is demanding that the company pay its legal and moral obligations to these longstanding employees who have built the company over decades, added CEP’s Ontario region vice president Kim Ginter.
In its media release, CEP said it is meeting with legal counsel, the Town of Fort Erie and provincial representatives while deciding its next move.
Many Fort Erie residents pin future job hopes on plan for giant motor speedway.
This is the latest bad news for this town, located in the Niagara region and across the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York. Hundreds of jobs have already been lost with the closings this past year of the Fort Erie Slots, a provincial gambling facility, and the nearby Ontario Visitors Centre. The future of the horse-racing track is in serious doubt and about the only hope many residents now see on the horizon is a plan by a company called Canadian Motor Speedway to build and operate a high-speed car racing track on lands near the border and off the QEW.
That plan received a green light from the Ontario Municipal Board last year but the OMB approval is being appealed by the Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society, a Niagara-based citizens group over concerns it has about the potential impact the facility would have on rural lands hosting a creek system.
The group’s appeal has angered many in the town who want the speedway project and the many jobs it could bring to move ahead as soon as possible.
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Yes another blow to the economic stability of the region. And then we have one individual holding up a possible $400 Million facility that would greatly enhance the tourism industry for the region.
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My niece was an employee there for over 15 years. She is single and has a mortgage and other bills. Tough. They don’t care.
She receives no severance, no pension, no notice, nothing. Unfortunately, she worked in the office so has no union to fight for her and cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Her age, early 40’s, will be against her in the job market. She has a university degree but so do many people currently unemployed. Jobs are not falling out of the sky these days. She may have to pull up roots and leave family and friends behind. The company doesn’t care about such collateral damage. That seems to be a familiar theme in American policies these days.
The frighteneing trend in the US and similar proposals by our own (unnamed) politicians, to obliterate unions come hell or high water, is just beginning and when they are gone people will wonder what hit them. Sure some unions have become too powerful but, without them, all the evils which caused their creation will come back in short order.
This is a fault of our government. American companies operating in Canada do not have the same constraints re severance, pensions and other benefits as Canadian companies. This is not the first time American companies have done this. Declare bankruptcy and bugger off. Why does our government allow this to happen? Would Canadian companies follow their own rules in the US? I doubt it very much. Another example would be the big conglomerates like car companies who get money from the government…read that “Us”…and then close plants and remove jobs. How nice. With more and more of our job creators based in foreign countries we should be very afraid.
Our governments are saps. They are SO afraid to stand up for their own citizens. At the very least they could confiscate all the assets of these companies for distribution to their ex-employees. Can you spell “SUCKERS”?
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As an afterthought, my understanding was that this particular branch was one of the most profitable and best functioning factories in the company. So much for hard work. Apparently these employees won’t even get accrued sick days or vacation time.
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I am disgusted! This is the 21st century and another company has closed. This time it’s a printing plant in Stevensville Ontario that happens to be owned by yet another large American company. It was announced recently that 100 people where put instantly into the status of the unemployed. There is no severance pay, no vacation pay or for that matter any other pay that might be owed them. All because this company has claimed bankruptcy in the USA. To top it off their union, our government and who knows who else is evolved do not know if anything can be done about this.
This particular story is an insult to myself and any other Canadian who have lived through something like this. What happened to us so many years ago was not suppose to happen again. It seems that there is only a few who can remember about the hardships that was caused by the company closures in the 80’s and 90’s. More importantly the way that companies today are allowed to walk away from their Canadian interests.
There is more to a company than their profits. No place can survive anywhere without that employee that has made the best product possible. It is a fact that without mutual pride, respect and commitment most are doomed to fail. If that happens those so-called big companies must step up to the plate and be responsible to their employees. No matter which country they are in.
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I have always supported PALS in the past, but they are dead wrong on this one,the site chosen would leave a smaller ecological footprint then any other site in Ontario, the land is not prime agricultural it is mainly scrub with little sub soil and a huge bed of limestone that stretches for miles through Fort Erie.and is right next to the QEW within two interchanges,.this site is far better than the one picked in Stevensville ..
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the goverment must be blind deaf and dumb not to realize the benifits of horse racing in Fort Erie
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GOVERNMENT UNIONS ARE NOW 80 % OF UNIONS IN ONTARIO , UNIONS WERE AND ARE THE DOWNFALL OF ALL ECONOMICS ? NOBODY WANTS TO WORK FOR LESS THEN $$$ PUTTING THE ONCE BACK BONE OF ONTARIOS GREAT ECONOMY WHICH WAS SMALL BUSINESSES IN A NO WIN SITUATION,LOOK AT THE US SO MANY STATES WHERE SOCIAL WORKERS, GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES OUT PAID THE PRIVATE SECTOR SINCE 2002 BY DOUBLE NOW THEY ARE BANKRUPT , UNIONS ARE GONE UNIONS WERE THE CAUSE, FREE TRADE WHAT A JOKE , CAUSED MASSIVE IMPORTS, THIS SHOULD BE STOPPED ! 30% ON ANYTHING THAT COMES INTO NORTH AMERICA, AND LIBERAL GOVERNMENTS THAT SPEND FOOLISHLY ,SPENDING FAR MORE THEN COMES INN ,A RECIPE FOR DISASTER ALWAYS HAS BEEN , WE NEED STRONG POLITICIANS NOT EX LAWYERS WHOM MISLEAD PEOPLE FOR A RICH LIVING, AND RICH DRAMA TEACHERS WHO MOTIVATE BUT CONTINUALLY LIE SPEND AND PUT OUR ECONOMY AND KNOW THE SAFTEY OF ONTARIO AND CANADA AT RISK FOR SIMPLE VOTES AND POLITICAL GAIN JAMIE COSMAN
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