(The following article is from the November 16-30, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

The Canadian Labour Congress says it's time the federal government took steps to ensure that job losses in the manufacturing and forestry sectors aren't accelerated by the recent worldwide economic slump.

     The latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada showed that the only significant new employment in October was directly tied to hirings for the federal election. That short-term blip offset losses in accommodation and food services, signs that the ongoing loss of full-time jobs, combined with bad news from financial markets, are taking their toll.

     The CLC called on Nov. 6 for investment in new infrastructure to create badly needed jobs and to improve skills training for "the new, green economy of tomorrow." Both the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) have raised similar ideas since the election.

     CLC President Ken Georgetti said the federal government needs to fix the Employment Insurance program to ensure that workers who lose their jobs can still feed their families and pay their mortgages. This is especially urgent for Ontario, he said, where jobs continue to be lost and where only half of people who are unemployed are able to access their EI benefits. Georgetti also called on the federal government to immediately protect pensions and RRSP savings the same way bank deposits are protected.

     Labour Congress economist Sylvain Schetagne noted that in October, 20,400 more Canadians joined those who are looking for work but unable to find it, bringing to 1,139,700 the number of "official" unemployed. The country's goods-producing sectors lost a total of 26,800 jobs in October, and another 8,800 in the construction industry.

     The trend continued with the Nov. 7 announcement by General Motors of 500 temporary job cuts at its Oshawa car plant, on the heels of 470 layoffs at the Navistar truck plant in Chatham, Ontario and another 500 job losses at the CAMI plant (a joint venture between GM and Suzuki) in Ingersoll, Ontario.

     Job losses keep coming right across Canada. NorSask Forest Products, for example, has just sent 62 termination notices effective Dec. 19 to its mill workers in the northern Saskatchewan town of Meadow Lake. United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1-184 President Paul Hallen said his members are left wondering whether the "terminations" are temporary or permanent. The notices say "current economic conditions simply do not allow us to continue operations at this time... Lumber prices will recover and at that time Norsask will start up again and at that time we will contact you in the hope that you can rejoin Norsask as an employee."

     "Neither the provincial nor federal governments have shown any interest in finding meaningful solutions to the on-going disintegration of one of our province's most vital industries," Hallen said. "Governments have tossed up their hands and turned their backs. Workers, communities and many Canadian forest companies continue to pay the price."

     The collapse of zinc prices and the global economic turmoil are cited by Breakwater Resources for its decision to temporarily close the Myra Falls mine in Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island. The mine employs about 300 workers. Zinc prices have dropped 58 per cent since the beginning of the year, most of that during October, despite production curtailments by companies attempting to stabilize zinc prices. The Myra Falls workers are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers.

     After posting a third-quarter loss of $3.4 billion (US), Nortel Networks Corp. said it will cut 1,300 jobs in an effort to save cash during "an environment of shrinking customer spending and greater competition."

     Those job cuts did not satisfy Kris Thompson, an analyst with National Bank Financial, who called the layoffs "shallow."

     "We are disappointed with this employee reduction program," he wrote in a research note reported by the Globe and Mail. "We had modelled a reduction of 3,000 employees based on an employee productivity analysis we had earlier conducted against Nortel's peer group."