Jobs scare for laid-off auto workers, study suggests
A study of laid off auto manufacturing employees at three Ontario plants shows only about one quarter are working and most of them earn a lot less since the economy began recovering last year.
The Canadian Auto Workers said Monday that preliminary results from tracking the experiences of 260 laid off members at Chrysler Canada in Brampton and two parts makers reveals almost half of them have also bounced from job to job and are struggling with social problems .
"Bay Street and Main Street are worlds apart," Ken Lewenza, the CAW`s national president, told reporters after releasing the joint study by the union and McMaster University. "Workers victimized by the financial crisis are now being left behind in the so-called recovery."
The study, which also included union members at Collins & Aikman in suburban Scarborough and Kitchener Frameworks in Kitchener, said one quarter of the employees have held three or more jobs and one in six currently works for more than a single company.
About 70 per cent are working in part-time in jobs, on contract, casual labour or self-employment, the study noted.
Furthermore, wages have plunged by more than $10 an hour for 71 per cent of the Chrysler workers and 60 per cent of the Kitchener Framework employees, according to the study
Sam Vrankulj, the study`s author and a member of McMaster`s School of Labour Studies, said about 70 per cent of the employees are shifting to jobs with no union and most of them have no benefits or control over working hours.
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