Submitted by the Office of Welland, Ontario MPP Cindy Forster
(A Note from Niagara At Larger – Niagara Health System honchoes mentioned Cindy Forster’s name and wondered why she might not be there this March 7 at the ceremonial opening of the new mega-hospital complex located in the north Niagara, Ontario area of west St. Catharines.
Welland, Ontario riding MPP Cindy Forster
While St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley was continuously praised at the ceremony for the new hospital as a champion for the opening of the facility there, in his riding, Forster was at Queen’s Park making one more plea for some justice for 100 employees who were summarily dumped by a U.S.-based corporation when it closed its doors on a plant in Fort Erie, Ontario.
While there is so far no indication that the Liberal government Bradley is part of will do anything to uphold labour laws in Ontario that might at least deliver these workers some severance pay, Forster at least tried to speak for them one more time. NAL is posting her comments this March 7 in the provincial legislature below.)
Ontario, Queen’s Park Hansard, March 7 – Ms. Cindy Forster: I rise on an issue having a devastating impact on workers in my riding and in the Niagara Falls riding. When US-based company Vertis Communications declared bankruptcy and laid off some 100 employees, they strategically avoided paying these workers their owed severance pay to the amount of $2.7 million. “
“By declaring bankruptcy in the US, they circumvented labour laws in this country and are denying workers their right to severance.
“Many of these workers have 30 to 35 years of service at the plant and merely expect their rights will be upheld and severance will be granted. However, it’s become quite clear that Vertis has no intention of honouring their rights, leaving these workers with no recourse but to picket outside the plant in hope that public pressure and media attention will force Vertis to live up to its legal and moral obligations.”
“Their efforts are in vain, though. Instead of being granted the right to severance, these workers have now been served summons to appear in court today for an injunction to end the picketing.”
“Quad/Graphics, the company that purchased the equipment and supplies, wish to remove these from the plant and have gone so far as to ask for damages from these employees for the alleged loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. These are the same employees that are owed $2.7 million in severance.”
“This is an affront to these workers and a shameful result of no-strings-attached relationships that our government currently has with US-based corporations. What is the government prepared to do to prevent attacks on workers’ rights from happening in the future?”
(Niagara At Large encourages all visitors to this site to share their views on this or any other posts on this news and commentary site. Divergent views are most welcome in the spirit of NAL’s goal to operate as a virtual town hall for discussing and debating issues of interest and concern to our communities and countries across the greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
What do they mean, “…Because the bankruptcy occurred in the U.S….”? Why wasn’t the money kept in trust in Canada, out of reach of corporate executives? What incompetent governments at both the federal and provincial levels…Even the municipal government while they were kissing ass to get one more factory located in Fort Erie should have asked the question, “How do you plan to meet your obligation to our people?”
Looks like Harpers “Rule of Law” he is so proud of only applies to working class victims!
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Isn’t that just great?
A company goes broke and closes down without paying their employees. Then the bankrupt company sells off the assets as if their employees have no strings attached to those assets.
What kind of labour laws and what kind of government do we have in Canada when employees are left holding the bag, with no say or rights to the pay they are legally entitled to?
In my humble opinion the employees should be legally entitled to their pay before anyone else profits by the sale of assets and that includes the taxman.
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There is a $39 BILLION DOLLAR lawsuit pending in the U.S.A courts against Chevron launched by ECUADOR for damages to the ECUADORIAN AMAZON RAIN FOREST, the RIVERS and the very TRADITIONAL LANDS NATIVES live on by TEXACO a company that was bought out by CHEVRON..
So I would suggest that the VERTIS People fight to the very end and hopefully our Corporate Federal Government in OTTAWA JUST MIGHT get on their side in this fight for restoration of the RIGHTS of these Canadian workers
There us a movie called “CRUDE” that illustrated the damages to the PEOPLES as well as the RAIN FOREST if anyone would care to see it just say so….I have this movie if anyone would care to view it?????
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Once material and/or equipment crosses the border into the U.S.A. the Vertis employees will get nothing but a smirk from executives who have executed this coup d’tete.
it amazing we have Corporate Governments here as well as in the U.S.A. and Ralph Nader once said it matter not who is elected they are both (Meaning Democrat and Republican) corporate governments basically owned by their monetary sponsors (One might take this to also mean Liberal and Conservative governments here in Canada) So your appearance in court today. HAS TO HAVE SOME MEANING or WE AS CANADIAN can kiss our sovereignty good by cause by a legal system and elected GOVERNMENTS that will seem to be in league with the devil.
Good Luck my fellow “Blue Collared” Canadians and God Bless you..
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thank you again ndp leader of wellend cindy forster,for your support and thoughtfulness,if nothing else your party has my vote,thanks for nothing pc and liberal party.
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If truth is to be told the Government in Ottawa (I truly do not know what to call “IT” maybe “The tea Party thing might suffice) goal is to break Unions and it is almost certain these hypocrites WILL NOT GO AGAINST THEIR CORPORATE MASTERS AND FIGHT FOR THE “RIGHTS” of these CANADIANS , ANY CANADIANS.
THIS COUNTRY HAS TO GET BALLS AND GET RID OF THE GOONS OCCUPYING AND BREATHING OTTAWA AIR.
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Just a quick note to Mr Somers ….
Please sir, enough of the upper case letters. Believe it or not, you make your case better by reducing the upper case. In the comment above, I can see perhaps the need to use an upper case B in billion dollar.
Otherwise, keep the upper case for the first word in a sentence or the first letter of proper names.
Thank you.
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