And Ken Lewenza should just shut the fuck up! Seems Lewenza is sticking his nose in the Ontario election today and endorsing Dalton McGuinty. Good for you Ken. But I've got news for you. The CAW workers, the ones that actually work on the lines and in the parts manufacturing facilities don't support McGuinty. Your first clue might have been when Sid Ryan was a repeat loser in the federal Oshawa riding. Or I thought you might finally get it when Chris Buckley, head of Oshawa Local 222 was also defeated in the May election. Hey, who won those Brampton ridings in the past election?
Lewenza is a gleaming example of what is commonly referred to as a hypocrite. Seems he is endorsing McGuinty because of the auto bailouts. But yet he never endorsed Stephen Harper who put much more taxpayer money into those bailouts than McGuinty. Why is that Ken?
If Lewenza wants to know who the rank and file CAW members really support in an election he should make the rounds to different plants and ask the workers whose union dues pay his six-figure salary. And I'm not talking about union reps, the ones who still think it's 1962. I'm talking about the ones who go home sore at the end of every shift. The ones whose electricity bills have skyrocketed under McGuinty. The ones who have lost or who have family and friends who lost jobs because of McGuinty's fiscal incompetence.
The ones who had eye exams, physio and chirporactic care de-listed under McGuinty. Workers with elderly low-income parents who have been crushed by McGuinty's tax grabs, the ones who got slammed with the hst. The ones you represent, the ones you fought for saying how co-pay benefits wasn't fair. Yet you kept your mouth shut when McGuinty applied a new tax on that same co-payment amount starting in January of this year.
You praise McGuinty and Frank Stronach. Stronach, the guy who was paying himself $40 million a year without paying Canadian income taxes as he had a castle in Switzerland registered as his address. Your predecessor Buzz Hargrove saw nothing wrong in giving a leather jacket to then Liberal PM Paul Martin, just after CAW workers learned of the illegal kickback scheme perpetrated using our tax dollars.
Time to accept reality Ken. Workers want a Premier who treats them with respect and not as some cash-cow piggy bank slush fund used to reward party loyalists, friends and family. They want a Premier who doesn't waste their hard-earned tax dollars. They want someone like Tim Hudak as Premier of Ontario.
Dalton McGuinty may very well be victorious in the October 6th election. But remember Ken, you speak for CAW members when dealing with thier employer. In contract negotiations. In workplace safety. In charity fundraising.
But when it comes to politics, and more importantly, elections, speak for yourself. The rank and file can and will make our own decisions come voting day.