What does USWA Local 1005 think, well i know what they thought. As a proud member of 1005 for nearly 30 years i have expierienced first hand the mismanagement of a once strong and powerful steel company, the rape and pillage that has occurred not only over the last five years but actually since the beginning in the early 80s when the accountants took over and failed to realize the importantance of moderization and were focused on the next quarter, yes, thats when the steel men were disappearing and the suits took over. Throughout the whole fiasco over restructuring the whole effort was lead and supported by the veteran and retired workforce, the people who knew and understood the corporate culture, the people who had invested their hard earned money in the company and were watching it disapear before their very eyes, family members of mine included. It was a situation that disgusted the commmunity as a whole, a community that feels betrayed by our national government, the SEC and last but not least, the courts, the very place that we expect to see JUSTICE. It was during the early 80s that area managers were allowed to run the show in their area with little or no accountability to the top, the favouritism, the payoffs that were demanded by these men of the contractors in order to secure work in the plant regardless of quality, one prime example is the now sold off plate mill project where multimillions were spent by area managers and they never did get it going right, then dismantled it and sold it off to India just when the market for plate went great guns, Algoma is making mega bucks off of it, and no one at the top even questioned it, of course some of those hands were certainly greased. Throughout this whole process, lead by Rolf Gerstenberger, who by the way did and is doing a great job, we were very fortunate to not have given back a thing to the company, something that to my knowledge has never before occurred during a restructering process. The USWA, at least the older members are and were pissed and still do not trust this company or the new managers and owners, we know how this whole scenario is to be played out, the place, Hamilton Steel, formerly Hilton Works will ultimately be shut down and the crown jewel, Lake Erie works will be sold off for a nice profit. Yes, this is what we as a group once thought, but boy do times change and in a hurry. Senior members are retiring in droves, a nice 20 k incentive was dangled to take the pension, new and younger men and ladies hired to take their place, they all love the money, we have many who make over 100 k a year, yea, thats right 100 k, i make damn near 70 with no overtime. As Mark M has stated, i can make money other places, by the way, where have you been lately, miss your informative posts. A new carrot has been dangled over the workforces head in the form of a new bonus, one that pays even when the company loses money and is promising bigger and better things, the potential to add 10 to 20 k a year. To no ones surprise, at least not mine, the talk has shifted from the health of the company to how much one can earn, we as a Local are losing focus, and this is dangerous. The new owners have made it quite clear that this business is for sale, and when this occurs the time of reconing will have arrived, hope i spelled that right. When the next owners appear i suspect the tragic end to appear, but the current owners are smart, keep the workforce happy for now, they are also very secerative, they dont give away any position and its hard to come across anything to support my views, this was always the easy part with the old company. I guess that in this age of business all this should be of no surprise to me, money cures all mentality.

Bill,
When lawyers held the love-in for James Farley last spring when he announced his pending retirement I commented on your blog that he would likely surface within a few months in a consultancy or executive position with the Brascan Boys who now do their skullduggery under the name Brookfield Asset Management. I suppose when you hold all the cards, why settle for joining BAM? You can join Stelco's lawyers and replicate the rip-offs many times over, getting a bigger slice of the pie than the taxable salary and performance bonuses that he might extract from BAM? This man is a total disgrace to the legal profession and Ontario Ministry of Justice, but when the fish is rotten at the head nothing should suprise us. The walls of justice and Canadian capital markets are crumbling.....Is anyone listening?

I posted a while back what I thought about this whole thing and now it looks like the government and big business are quietly "sneaking" their way to an American style Chapter 11 set of laws.
If we're ever going to create a true "strategic" trade alliance with the States,we need their style of laws[we don't *quite* have that yet,as I understand it].
At least that's what the boys up top would seem to think.
The sad part is,they're doing it and all I'm seeing and hearing is a lot of moaning and complaining by the people who got screwed.
The leadership in this country[business and gov't] is rotten to the core.
They're all led by a bunch of crooked lawyers and accountants under the guise of "social re-engineering".
Think the public will support people like us?
Not likely.
They've been looking for our money for so long["social programs"],they'd love to see us fall.
They seem to think that more money will be available for their "programs" when corporations and the government control the lion's share.
They're dead wrong.
It's joe average who pays the taxes[so companies won't have to].
The problem is that companies don't pay regardless,so if the workers are paying,that's money out of the corporate coffers.
Think I'm wrong?
Look at the GST and what it replaced.
I'm diverging here,but it all fits together as part of the big social re-engineering picture.