When a quiet but organized protest featuring more than a 100 protestors converged on Dave and Catherine Corbett’s lawn on June 15, with the A.O. Smith plant behind them, the message was clear in the chants of the crowd: “A.O. Smith, do the right thing!”
The rally took place in the wake of the company’s April 3 decision to shut the plant down, ending more than 300 jobs to move production to the United States.
The issue at hand was described in a press release issued by the United Steelworkers (USW), the union representing A.O. Smith’s workers at the plant: “A.O. Smith has reported to shareholders that it will enjoy a “pre-tax annual savings of $10 million” from the shutdown.
However, the company has refused to help Fergus workers and retirees who say their pension plan will experience a significant shortfall as a direct result of the factory shutdown.
USW District 6 director Marty Warren said, “Today is to raise awareness of our issue around a billion dollar company having a moral responsibility to do the right thing.”
He described the situation as “a perfect storm between financial markets,” noting that “all pension plans are having funding issues. Most will recover over time.”
With regards to the Fergus company, Warren said, “Something is broken when a company such as this one can cut and run and not help their employees and retirees.”
He added, “We say, do the right thing and split the $10 million.”
Noting the company will save millions by relocating to the south, Warren said, “We’re asking them to help the people who made them the company they are.”
USW local 3989 president Tim Wall has worked at the plant for 25 years and will be one of the 35 who remain employed there after the plant closure later this summer.
Of the mood of the crowd, Wall said, “It’s terrible, of course the closure announcement stuff has brought anxiety and stress and anger to the employees.” Reiterating Warren’s message, Wall said his employer should, “look after your employees and retirees and they’re not doing that.”
He added, “It goes beyond that … this is a wealthy company that should treat its employees and community with the dignity and security of well-earned retirement.”
Joining in the protest were USW locals from Kitchener and Toronto, as well as the Ontario Teacher’s Federation, and the United Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, Guelph Wellington Chapter 6-03.
“Everybody is pulling together and showing their solidarity,” Wall said.
Dave Corbett has been employed by A.O. Smith for 25 years and, living adjacent to the factory, he says the decision to offer their property for the rally was an easy one for himself and his wife Catherine.
“We’ve had grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sons who have worked here,” Catherine said. “This is the heart of Fergus … it always has been.”
The plant closure has literally hit too close to home for the couple.
“I would have been able to retire early in the next five years,” Dave Corbett said. “Now I have to work for 10 more years.”
Catherine said, “You don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Explaining the stress, Dave said, “They just pull the plug and you have to face the reality.”
On hand for the demonstration, NDP leader Andrea Horwath spoke to the media stating, “I’m here to support the workers and retirees” in what she described as “a pretty negative situation.”
Addressing the crowd Horwath said, “Premier Wynne says there is no crisis in manufacturing … I wish she were here today, so you could tell her.”
Reminding the crowd of Wynne’s statements that Ontario should be celebrating manufacturing, Horwath argued, “there will be nothing to celebrate.” She added, “Unfortunately there has been nothing done to help the manufacturers in Ontario.”
Of the job loss in Fergus, Horwath said, “These are good middle class jobs. Good value-added jobs should be putting food on Canadian tables.”
Horwath acknowledged the day’s rally was not about legal responsibly, but about a moral one.
“It’s a situation where the company doesn’t have to do the right thing … by law … but what does this say to the community?” she asked.
“A small pittance of a billion dollar company could take away the worries in your head.”
Horwath said the handling of the plant closure leaves a negative legacy after more than a century in the community, where employees are generations deep.
She said A.O. Smith was, “literally, turning its back on the legacy of a community… There is something seriously wrong.”
“Unfortunately, I have been to too many of these events,” Horwath told the crowd, pointing to similar work issues in other parts of the province. “When you’ve worked all your life and you have a pension, you should be able to rely on that.”
Horwath stated that while the provincial government has been cutting corporate taxes, her party proposes a different solution.
“What we’d rather do is work with these companies,” she said, noting that for over a decade the province hasn’t been able to attract businesses. “We’d rather see tax credits.”
She added, “There are proactive things we can do to encourage more manufacturing.”
For Fergus her concern was clear: “The good jobs are going and no good jobs are coming in to replace them.”
Peter Law, an A.O. Smith employee who was set to retire before the pre-closure announcement, commended his fellow colleagues for taking part in the day’s events.
He referred to April 3, the day the closure announcement was made, as “Black Wednesday,” the day the company “took away the rights of 300 families.”
He stressed this isn’t about individuals, but the families that are impacted.
Stating the issue of the rally was about accountability, Law said, “Keep our pensions so retirees can retire with dignity, the soon-to-be-retired can retire with dignity and the future employees too.”
Taking the platform, Warren said, “Something is broken when we, our government and all these people allow this company not to go beyond the bear minimum … We need the provincial government to stand up and say you can’t cut and run.”
In an email to the Advertiser, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott, who was not formally invited to the rally, addressed his own efforts to handle the issue of the pension fund by drawing attention to the matter in a letter to Minister of Finance Charles Sousa on June 12.
“As you will recall, I raised the concerns of my constituents in the Legislature in April when our community was shocked to learn of the loss of 350 good paying manufacturing jobs at A.O. Smith,” Arnott wrote.
“I have communicated with Mr. Warren in response. However, I wanted to seek your advice as Minister of Finance, to ensure that all provincial laws and regulations pertaining to the A.O. Smith workers’ pension plan are being observed and respected.”
A.O. Smith president and CEO Ajita Rajendra addressed concerns prior to the rally, stating that A.O. Smith has bargained in good faith with the United Steelworkers, as evidenced by the closure agreement for the manufacturing operations which was signed by both parties on May 27, 2013.
Rajendra added the company fulfilled all of its obligations under the terms of the collective agreement, as well as the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
