失业愁对幼儿单亲母泣泪
【明报专讯】“我是个单亲妈妈，儿子才3岁，我在工厂做了逾10年，厂房突然关闭，以后教我们怎样生活？”张小姐说时不禁黯然流泪。于上周突宣布关厂的旺市Progressive Moulded Products汽车零件厂聘有逾2,000名工人，其中有多达三分一为华裔，张小姐是其一。
有些工人更是夫妇同在该厂工作，如今工厂倒闭，家庭经济顿陷困境，在徬徨无助下，数百名工人昨天堵塞公司门口车路，阻碍货车出入，以示抗议，争取讨回遣散费。
自称因欠债5亿元而突然宣告关厂的Progressive Moulded Products有限公司专门生产塑胶仪表板。由于该工厂工人没有工会，故要求加拿大汽车工人工会(CAW)派出代表，联同4至5名工人与资方商讨。
双方谈判数小时后，资方只答允支付工人的医疗福利至本月底，以及至6月为止的薪酬，至于遣散费则仍未达成协议。不过，由于该公司已申请法庭禁制令，不能阻碍车辆出入，故工人亦只好遵守，但就继续在路口“徘徊”，减慢车辆出入进度，直至资方答允支付工人遣散费。
按劳工法最多可获8周遣散费
据法律援助处律师刘倩瑜表示，据安省劳工法，工厂倒闭时，工人可按年资获发遣散费，以1年年资可获1周薪金计算，最多可索取相等于8周的遣散费。若公司申请破产，资方只会按债权人优先次序赔偿，通常银行等债权人会优先获得偿还，至于工人则排在最后，在这种情况下，工人要索取遣散费有相当困难。
厂方仅允每人发1500元
至于宣布关厂的Progressive Moulded Products则已申请破产保护令，并只答应给予每名工1500元遣散费。
该工厂上周突然宣告关闭，令其设在多伦多市共11间厂房的2,000多名工人顿失所依，工人对公司突如其来的行动甚表不满，并于上周五开始堵塞该公司的出入口，阻止货车出入，期间双方更一度发生冲突，需要警方到场调停。
一名华裔工人阮小姐表示，不少夫妇均为该厂工作，如今工厂宣布倒闭，令家庭支柱同告失业，影响全家生计。“我与丈夫都同在这间厂工作，孩子才9岁，还要供车供楼，叫我们怎办？到现在我们都无法接受现实。”阮小姐说。
单亲妈妈的张小姐称：“在加拿大找工作那么困难，工厂如今关门，那来钱支付各种账单，孩子生活又如何解决？”
一名育有5名子女的女工亦指，丈夫身体欠佳，一家7口的担子全落在她身上，如今失业，生活顿成问题。
Angry workers blockade Vaughan parts plant
Jul 08, 2008 04:30 AM
Tony Van Alphen
Business Reporter
More than 150 angry workers blocked transport trucks from removing tooling and equipment at an insolvent Vaughan auto-parts plant for a fourth consecutive day yesterday, despite a second court order prohibiting picketing of entrances.
The workers are demanding severance pay and other compensation from Progressive Moulded Products Ltd. or its major customers, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, which are trying to pull equipment out of a cluster of company plants.
“This is quickly coming to a critical point as the police are expressing their intent of intensifying their pressure to remove the blockade,” said Jerry Dias, a senior official with the Canadian Auto Workers union, which is assisting the protestors.
“The police recognize this is a horrible situation and understand the workers have the right to demonstrate. At the same time, the police are threatening mass arrests.”
York Regional Police distributed a second court order yesterday as the workers delayed transport trucks that were idled in the middle of a busy road. The trucks were unable to enter company property for several hours.
“We’re trying to make sure the lines come open so we’re not going to need further police involvement,” said Sgt. John Loughry.
Dias said the workers’ tactics are similar to pressure the union applied on the same automakers last year after supplier Collins & Aikman closed some plants in the region. Workers occupied a plant in Scarborough and blocked the removal of tooling and equipment belonging to the companies.
The automakers contributed several millions of dollars so Collins could honour severance provisions in its contracts with workers, who ended the occupation after a few days.
Dias said the CAW is helping exert pressure on Progressive and its customers so the workers get all their wages, benefits and severance pay of a maximum 26 weeks, depending on years of service.
A Progressive spokesperson said workers will receive wages, vacation pay and medical benefits until the end of the month, but there are no provisions for severance pay.
Vaughan-based Progressive gained court protection from creditors in late June, but abruptly closed more than a dozen plants in Canada and the United States last week.
The move came after the company, customers and lenders failed to reach a deal to restructure debts of almost $550 million. Progressive, which is concentrated in the GTA, shut down 11 plants in Concord and Rexdale, resulting in the loss of more than 2,000 non-union jobs.
Dias, assistant to CAW president Buzz Hargrove, said in three decades in the labour movement, he had never seen such a large group of non-union employees fight a company for compensation.
Workers said in interviews that Progressive suffered from mismanagement, inefficiencies, poor planning and waste in recent years.
“The company also handled the closure very badly,” said Sim Yee, a process engineer with 23 years’ service.
“This is not the way to treat employees. There are some people with 30 years’ service and they’re literally being thrown out in the streets. They got nothing. There’s no severance pay, not even any proper notice.”
“There were a lot of dedicated people who formed the backbone of this company and this is how the company conducts itself,” added Vashti Quick, a laboratory leader, as she watched scores of angry workers and their children milling around a plant entrance.
“It’s outrageous. A lot of people enjoyed working here. But the company has been very disrespectful. It is very hurtful and sad for them.”
Other workers carried signs that read: “We want our pay,” “Please be fair with us,” and “We need work.”
Quick and other workers said Canada’s bankruptcy laws overwhelmingly favour corporations and don’t recognize rights for employees.
“The law is not on our side,” said Thai Ngo, another laboratory worker. “It’s on the side of the people with the money.”
Dias said that under the federal bankruptcy laws, the workers are not entitled to severance pay because the legislation regards them as unsecured creditors.
“That’s a crime,” he said.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/455941
