Labour Day 2007
Message from Wayne Samuelson, President
Ontario Federation of Labour

The fight for decent jobs and a living wage has been ongoing at the Ontario Federation of Labour since its founding Convention in 1957. The OFL celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2007 and the fight for good jobs continues unabated.

Today in Ontario we are in a jobs crisis in the manufacturing and resource sectors. Ontario is the manufacturing heartland of Canada – or it was. The reality is that Ontario has lost 175,000 manufacturing jobs. One in ten manufacturing jobs are gone – gone forever.

The crisis of losing good jobs affects us all. As working people with families we must all fight these ever-mounting job losses because when working families lose – everyone loses. You’re house isn’t worth the mortgage you’re paying, your kids won’t be going to college or university and the local hospital and schools start losing nurses, teachers and every other public service you need.

As always this is a political fight with the Federal government blaming the province and the province blaming Ottawa. To the 175,000 workers and their families who have lost their livelihoods the future looks grim. It doesn’t matter who’s blaming who. All they know is that governments could be helping to ease this crisis and nobody is doing anything – zip.

Here in Ontario the McGuinty government doesn’t even acknowledge this job loss crisis. When asked this is what Premier McGuinty had to say, “manufacturing is in transition. People who lose their jobs can just go and find a new one in another sector”. Simple.

Simple-minded.

As always the final decision on the jobs crisis will be made at the ballot box on October 10, 2007. We can no longer wait for this Premier to act. On Election Day tell Dalton McGuinty that jobs are worth fighting for. The 700,000 working people of the Ontario Federation of Labour think so.

cope343