The decision by Labatt to move the Lakeport operation to a brewery in London, Ontario will put another 180 people out of work. Lakeport Brewery at one time was running a three shift operation, making beer and selling it at competitive prices ( a buck a beer ) all the while churning up a handsome profit. Labatt purchased Lakeport for roughly $200 million back in 2007. Workers at Lakeport were somewhat nervous of the deal but put faith in the quality of their product, thinking that perhaps their jobs would be safe from this type of predatory sociopathic capitalism.
Even though we supposedly have free trade with the USA, one of the reasons given for this move was not only consolidation of business operations, but also the fact that the London, Ontario Labatt brewery could no longer ship some of its product to American markets. But workers and union officials rightly feel that this move was just another way of a large multi-national shutting down the competition.
Of course, free trade was never about trade and improving the quality of life for Canadians and world citizens. It is about investment rights that corporations now enjoy, and corporate decision making without regard to the damage done to families and the environment. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments have all rolled over and turned a blind eye to this crime against humanity!
With the closure of John Deere Welland Works in Welland, Ontario, Edscha in Niagara falls, Robin Hood Flour Mill in Port Colborne, and the ongoing strike at Vale- Inco in Sudbury and Port Colborne, blue collar families in and around the Hamilton-Niagara area, a one time industrial powerhouse, are feeling the noose.
The time is long overdue to hold spineless governments accountable in their collaberation with these corporate criminals. Governments must go back to telling companies 'if you want to sell it here, you have to build it here' and also must reinstate rules and laws ensuring that corporate investment is beneficial to both the community it does business in, as well as benefit Canada. Governments that do not adhere to this commit treason.
I also know that I will be writing letters to as many political jellyfish that I can, putting pressure on them, reminding them of the crimes they are a party to. And I will also boycott Labatt products!
- Dave Ruston
Stumble It!
Stella Artois = Budwiser = They. Aren't. Canadian.
If you want to buy Canadian, buy from a local microbrewery.
If you want to buy Canadian, buy from a local microbrewery.
They taste better anyway.
Regarding the closure of branch plants, the sooner the better, I say! It's all a false economy anyway in the long run.
"Getting a job" is the new slavery. It ensures a ready pool of workers for that self-same Big Business.
Granted you need all of these. But it's the structure that sucks. Why for instance, do workers meekly accept what industry has to offer? Why aren't there negotiations between the company and each potential worker? Unions have become particularly useless at this.
To answer my own question (in part anyway), the education system (and society) teaches us to be "good employees" first, and to think second. Where is the self-assurance we should each be imbued with - such that we can approach a potential employer and tell him/her why he/she needs us? But no, we take wha tis offered. Then when the company "downsizes", we are often shocked that we are let go.
http://harpers.org/archive/2010/04/0082881
Toward a Second Haitian Revolution
To Haitian peasants, wage work looked suspiciously like slavery—both monopolized the body of the laborer for someone else’s profit on someone else’s land. Yet export commodities and the money they generated required plantations. Without them, the government lacked the income to fund a military or build an infrastructure.