Friday, January 29, 2010

Layoffs at Sifto Salt...

Sifto Salt in Goderich announced that it is laying off 80 workers, for an indeterminate time frame. On the face of it this is a simple labour relations issue. Underlying the layoff announcement are the company's stated reasons. There is an excessive quantity of salt in storage that is due to an excessively warm, dry winter to date. So these guys continued to produce until they worked themselves out of a job. Some of the questions I have are:

Who made the descision to continue operations on a seven day per week basis even though the markets had "dried" up? As a union guy, I know whose doorstep I would lay it on.

Is there a rationale for the continued unfettered use of road salt that not only damages automobiles but also, more importantly, the environment. Is this another case for the use of mass transit vs. the individual automobile?

Finally, these workers are clearly the victims of climate change. Although this is a small economic cost in the grand scheme of things, there are still victims. It seems to me that as the debate rages on over those who believe the science and those who deny, there will be no big cataclysmic event that galvanizes everyone into action. The reality of climate change will sneak up on us and one morning we will wake up an realize that the world has been dangerously changed while we slept.

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