Workers
in Unifor Locals 112 and 673 at the Dash 8 De Havilland plant in
Downsview, Toronto launched their strike for stability and security on
July 27. The 700 workers raised the slogan "Whose Plant? Our Plant!" in
response to the arrogance of the oligarchs to decommission the plant
and move it out of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
To
serve their narrow private interest to become richer, a cartel of
oligarchs including the richest family in Canada, along with the owners
of Bombardier, the governments of Canada and Ontario and the Ontario
Supreme Court are planning to wreck the future and security of the De
Havilland workers and the economy of the GTA.
Bombardier split off De Havilland from its operations in 2018 and sold it to Longview Aviation Capital, a gang of international
investors led by Sherry Brydson, granddaughter of deceased newspaper
magnate Roy Thomson and cousin of David Thomson, who controls the
largest family fortune in Canada.
Brydson then declared that the purchase of the De Havilland assets
relieved Longview of all obligations to workers under an arrangement
between Bombardier and the Canadian government guaranteeing that
production of the Dash 8 would remain in the GTA.
The oligarchs stand to make a fortune redeveloping the Downsview
industrial land as a mixed residential/commercial area. Bombardier sold
a large chunk of the land to developers in 2018, throwing all work in
the industrial park into doubt and insecurity. Downsview is surrounded
by three subway stops and a cluster of retailers to the south. "If
you took that land and zoned it as a residential space tomorrow,
condos would be built in a year and the owners would get an amazingly
quick return," said Laura Taylor, a professor at York University's
Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Bombardier selling off De Havilland production to Longview has
increased the uncertainty for the future of aerospace work in the
industrial park and even relocation of the plant and work to produce
the Dash 8 within the GTA. This is occurring despite the aerospace
oligarchs' receiving billions of dollars in public money amidst their
assurances and solemn promises that paying the rich would "secure jobs
for the foreseeable future." The latest pay-the-rich scheme came this
past July 15 when the federal and Quebec governments paid the rich in
the aerospace sector almost $700 million. The oligarchs of Bombardier
are themselves notorious recipients of public money.
Longview’s
attempts to wreck the future of Dash 8 production in Toronto is yet
more proof that paying the rich is not only corrupt in itself but that
it guarantees nothing for working people. The need for a new direction
for the economy under the control of the working people is obvious
indeed. A socialized economy owned and controlled as private property
is outmoded, dysfunctional and in opposition to the needs, future and
rights of the people.
Unifor writes, "De Havilland and its parent company Longview
Aviation Capital announced it would no longer build any new Dash 8-400
aircraft at the Downsview plant earlier this year. Longview's failure
to negotiate a future for the Dash 8 program with the union is at the
heart of this labour dispute."
The Longview oligarchs are using their wealth, the obsolete "right"
of private property enforced by the state machine in an attempt to
crush the modern rights and resistance of the De Havilland workers and
impose their will on the economy and people.
Keep Jobs Here rally
at De Havilland plant, August 24, 2021
This article was published in
August 25, 2021 - No. 74
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08741.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
