Raise the Hammer

Returning to this topic once more to remark on the comment of Mr Thomas, "I remember my Dad telling us how he watched his friends lose their homes during the strike of the 80's and what it did to some people. It definitely provided some hard times for my family". There is nothing romantic about a strike and all workers will contest to that and it is a fact that accompanying hard times are a bye-product, however no one, no one lost their home because of the strike and empirical data from the times will bear testament to that. Many did lose their homes during the strike of the 80's, and I emphasize during and not because, for many others, not attached to Stelco also lost their homes. It was caused by a National phemomenon Mr Thomas, a time when interest rates on mortgages, across the country jumped beyond the charts, in some cases over 20% and creating desperation for those whose terms had expired or were up for renewal and could not afford to pay the astronomical increase. Coincidence prevails here, just as it did when my grandmother broke her leg the day War was declared. Back to the Stelco strike in the 80's, the strike that should never have been "as stated by the media at that time" and prompting one Dofasco executive to state that if he was searching for an example of a modern Robber Baron, the Stelco management had just provided one. For the strike in reality was a well engineered and organized ploy by the company to enforce a lock-out. At the time, Steel was in high demand and Stelco's sales had never been better and they continued to manufacure steel and stockpile steel in locations all over the province. On July 26th? 1980, or to pinpoint another coincidence, the day of the Charles and Diane wedding, negotiations with Local 1005 broke off and after offering the Union a pittance, the Company claimed that there was not another cent in the pot. Three months later and the company's offer in July of 95cents an hour,for wages and benefits suddenly escalated to $7.28, that's right $7.28, the largest settlement in Canada and brought down on the head of Stelco the condemnation of both business and governments, accusing the company of barhaining in bad faith. How did they find another pot full of money? By continuing to sell stockpiles and by having private contractors carry out the modernization of facilities within the Plant and plan for the redundancy of thousands of workers from Stelco and from spin-off industries where livlihood depended on Stelco. I agree with your comments on change Mr Thomas, but not when they are made injustly.For thousands of citizens then, visins of pianos and higher education for their children vanished. I have applauded change and as a wrier was among the first to embrace word processing, even though in composing my memoir I use a fountain pen, writing with both my right hand and my left hand before transmitting to my computer to adapt the wonderful tools of editing and spell checking. However, I digress from what started as a comment on a stadium location and then a dedication to fight injustice and now expanding on Labour history. The virtue of a writer is to walk through a forest of words and find verbs and the conjugation of verbs on every tree, and every tree reeking a story. It also provides an old man with every reason to remain young.