Its Not About Money?

OTTAWA — On Dec. 5, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, citing a proposed increase in teachers’ supervision time and plans to allow principals to direct their planning time, turned down a contract offer that would have given them smaller class sizes, more preparation time and a 12-per-cent pay increase over four years.

On that same day, a beleaguered General Motors announced that it was shutting down the third shift at its Oshawa plant, throwing 700 employees out of work.

Five days later, on Dec. 10, OC Transpo workers here in Ottawa went on strike over scheduling differences.

Also on Dec. 10, Toyota announced output cutbacks at two Canadian plants, while FNX Mining suspended nickel-ore production in Sudbury, a move that affected 307 workers.

Another mining giant, Rio Tinto, promised that day to eliminate 14,000 jobs, while Office Depot announced plans to close 112 stores.

And six days ago, on Jan. 7, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union rejected a government offer that contained a punitive provision for provincial Correctional Services members with excessive sick time, and asked them instead to vote to strike.

That was the same day that the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s chief economist, Don Drummond, reacting to reports of 100,000 jobs lost in Canada in November and December, predicted that the country’s economic forecast for the first half of 2009 looked “pretty terrible.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Business/about+control+experts/1169940/story.html