The Right Honourable Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Prime Minister:

 RE:      London, Ontario –  Electro-Motive Diesel plant closure

 On behalf of Canada’s largest municipal local union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79, I must protest your total abandonment of Canadian workers at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario. 

 Prime Minister Harper, you have not only failed to protect Canadian jobs and interests but you have chosen instead to support corporations who reap huge profits and are rewarded by publicly-funded tax breaks that have further increased their already record-breaking profits.  Your  government’s own policies require foreign corporations to demonstrate a ‘net Canadian benefit’ before buying up Canadian companies.  How does shuttering this plant benefit one Canadian?  How does allowing Electro-Motive to pull out benefit the 460 workers at this plant, and the thousands of others who work in spin-off jobs in this community?

 If your government is interested in job creation and economic growth this is not the way to go about it.

 CUPE Local 79 represents more than 18,000 workers in the City of Toronto, Bridgepoint Hospital and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and our members understand the importance of a living wage and a decent livelihood to raise families and contribute to society.  Your government’s inaction in the face of this blatant bullying by a foreign-owned corporation operating in Canada has put 460 families at risk and threatened the future of thousands of others. 

 Your silence in the face of corporate greed speaks volumes.

 Yours truly,

  Tim Maguire, President