Open Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Order the Use of the GM Oshawa Plant for Essential Medical Production

Details: Published on Monday, 06 April 2020 01:04; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2046 ... April 6, 2020
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Open Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau: Order the Use of the GM Oshawa Plant for Essential Medical Production

Green Jobs Oshawa

We call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to issue an immediate order for the production of essential medical equipment and supplies in the Oshawa GM complex and related parts supplier facilities. This should be the first step toward establishing a publicly owned manufacturing centre that could supply strategically necessary goods in times of crisis.

* The GM manufacturing complex has 10 million square feet -- 90 per cent of it unused.
* Other supplier companies in the Oshawa area are also empty as a result of GM’s decision to end vehicle assembly in Oshawa.
* Thousands of highly skilled GM and supplier workers are unemployed as a result of GM’s actions, and would be eager to work on this crucially needed production.

We are facing a crisis. "Our hospital members report that supplies are being rationed. In long-term care and home care these protections are especially scarce. We are asking for safety... protocols to be toughened; for expired masks to be distributed and for industry to be immediately directed to produce masks and testing kits," said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), on March 30, 2020.