| Glasgowlass |
Posted on: 19-May-2010, 03:43 AM |
Replies: 214
Views: 18,457
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HAVE YOU EVER BEEN GUILTY OF LOOKING AT OTHERS YOUR OWN AGE AND THINKING,
SURELY I CAN'T LOOK THAT OLD? WELL...YOU'LL LOVE THIS ONE!
MY NAME IS ALICE SMITH AND I WAS SITTING IN THE WAITING ROOM FOR MY
FIRST APPOINTMENT WITH A NEW DENTIST. I NOTICED HIS DENTAL DIPLOMA,
WHICH BORE HIS FULL NAME.
SUDDENLY, I REMEMBERED A TALL, HANDSOME, DARK HAIRED BOY WITH THE
SAME NAME HAD BEEN IN MY SECONDARY SCHOOL CLASS SOME 30-ODD YEARS AGO
COULD HE BE THE SAME GUY THAT I HAD A SECRET CRUSH ON, WAY BACK THEN?
UPON SEEING HIM, HOWEVER, I QUICKLY DISCARDED ANY SUCH THOUGHT.
THIS BALDING, GRAY HAIRED MAN WITH THE DEEPLY LINED FACE WAS FAR TOO
OLD TO HAVE BEEN MY CLASSMATE. AFTER HE EXAMINED MY TEETH, I ASKED
HIM IF HE HAD ATTENDED MORGAN PARK SECONDARY SCHOOL .
'YES, YES I DID. I'M A MORGANNER! 'HE BEAMED WITH PRIDE.
'WHEN DID YOU LEAVE TO GO TO COLLEGE?' I ASKED
HE ANSWERED, IN 1965. WHY DO YOU ASK?
'YOU WERE IN MY CLASS!' I EXCLAIMED.
HE LOOKED AT ME CLOSELY.
THEN THAT
UGLY,
OLD,
BALD,
WRINKLED,
FAT ARSED,
GREY HAIRED,
DECREPIT,
BASTARD ASKED....
'WHAT DID YOU TEACH?'
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Forum: General Discussion · Post Preview: #296679 |
| Glasgowlass |
Posted on: 14-May-2009, 05:04 AM |
Replies: 35
Views: 2,277
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I didn't know where else to post this so here it is. This is very bad news for the city of Oshawa ontario.
"Why is this happening when we build the best trucks in the world?"
-- GM retiree Pat Creighton
OSHAWA -- Charles Bottomley, Harry Bottomley, Pat Creighton and Bill Kress.
There's more than 100 years of service -- and four generations -- who have worked proudly and continuously at General Motors here in Oshawa.
A father, a son, a daughter and a son. Or in the case of Bill Kress, he, his mom, his grandfather and his great-grandfather. But later today the streak will end with him.
After today Oshawa no longer will have its famous truck plant, which set quality standards and produced more than 10 million of the vehicles since 1965.
And his family's century-long chain will end when that last truck rolls off the line. His 2,600 co-workers face the same fate -- leaving General Motors in Oshawa with just 3,800 workers, down from the high of 18,000 in the 1980s.
For Bill's mom, Pat Creighton, it's going to be difficult no longer having those bragging rights, since her family has worked without intermission or interruption at General Motors since 1908.
"My grandfather, Charles Bottomley, was an original who worked even earlier for Sam McLaughlin at the McLaughlin Carriage Company," she says.
She is glad he is not around to see this day. Same goes for her dad, Harry, who retired after 35 years in 1970. Pat was proud to continue that legacy when she went on the job in 1955 and retired in 1989.
'A SOMBRE WEEK'
Her son, Bill, continued the tradition by putting in 26 years. At 49 he didn't quite make it to retirement.
And, sadly, there will not be a fifth generation. "It has been a sombre week," he says.
"It's upsetting," adds Creighton, now in her 70s and very upset at the state of the soon-to-be bankrupt company she and her family have been so proud to have been affiliated with for so long.
GM spokesman Stew Low says the last truck should be completed at about 11 a.m., after which there will be a ceremony including the raffle of that truck, with proceeds going to Sick Kids, to a worker or retiree.
Low, too, is saddened, saying of the workers: "They have worked really hard and have done everything that was asked of them." No matter which way you cut it, he says, "the market for pickup trucks in the United States has contracted," which is the harsh reality of it.
Who knows what the future holds as the entire global auto sector restructures. Will there be a GM? Will the pensions be covered?
"It's scary," Creighton told the Toronto Sun editorial board at a special meeting this week at the McLaughlin Gallery here.
She was one of several retired and current workers from both GM and Chrysler who attended, along with Mayor John Gray. And she did not pull any punches.
"We just laid down and said rape us," she said of Canada in the changing economy. "I don't call it free trade and it's certainly not fair trade. How can we compete with people making $4 a day?"
'SOLD DOWN RIVER'
The fact that a truck plant is remaining in Mexico, as well as several in the United States, is disgraceful. "We can't compete with offshore -- especially when they have no environmental laws," she said. "And now all the jobs are off to Mexico, India, Russia, Korea and China. The truth is they sold the Canadian people down the river."
CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley agrees: "We need to remind our workers that this has come about through no fault of their own but because of bad decisions by General Motors and years of government neglect to deal with the realities of trade imbalances."
GM should be "hanging their heads in shame because they are closing the best truck plant in the industry."
Former CAW president Buzz Hargrove adds, "The fact that GM is continuing to make trucks elsewhere is an insult -- especially when they agreed to keep it open."
Hargrove has always talked of the import issue and "right now in Canada we import 28% from foreign countries while most of these countries we import from don't buy anything from us. It doesn't make any sense to me." He added most European countries have their import quota set at 12% and others at 5%. In Canada he believes if it was set at 17%, North American vehicles could better compete.
"They should put tariffs on imports immediately since they have had a free ride since the 1960s," says Creighton.
Or, she says, do it the way we are doing it by closing down all the plants, put the workers on the dole while countries without proper labour or environmental laws grow their wealth while our politicians talk about the new green economy.
"Why don't we just tell the truth?" asks Creighton. "We now have lost our industry -- auto, textile, steel and softwood lumber. What is this new economy they are talking about? Please tell me what it is because I don't see it."
What she does see is her family legacy sailing off into the sunset today with the closing of the GM truck plant.
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