"A Remarkable Change in Man"

Being with the ElectroMotive workers on Saturday, the day following the announcement of that plant’s official closing, had an odd feel about it. A good number of concerned citizens mixed with the workers, sharing coffee and stories. But it was a bit like those occasions when you go to the home of someone following a funeral, drink beverages, eat some snacks, and talk about how wonderful the deceased was and how they’ll be missed. It kind of had that “it’s over, but now life has to move on” feel.A number of local citizens have contacted my wife and I about what they do now that Caterpillar is pulling up stakes. There are some things we can do in the short-term that aren’t too difficult. First, keep heading out to the lines and stand with the workers. They’re not leaving, but this time they’re fighting for some vestige of all they put in over the years instead of fighting for jobs that are now gone. Severance now becomes vital to these folks who have nothing, but to get it they have to bargain with the same company that just pulled the carpet out from under them. They paid for that severance through years of hard work and it’s vital that we help the workers know that we support their efforts to acquire it.Then there’s Employment Insurance. They’ve been officially let go, so they should qualify.  Phone your MP and ask that he or she assist with streamlining EI payments for the workers, even if it would result in some clawbacks once severance negotiations are concluded. London West MP Ed Holder has directly contacted his labour minister as well as Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, asking that they be supportive of the situation. That’s a good start, so let’s get behind that action.But there’s more, isn’t there? We all know it. How do we challenge a future that just seems to hold out more racing to the bottom? At the moment it appears as though the corporate sector controls all the cards and that the London incident is merely a precursor of things to come. There is the innate feeling of helplessness and eventually it will turn those with jobs against those without meaningful employment.There are prevalent concerns and people don’t know where to turn. Governments aren’t provoking a discussion about the kind of country we want and we seem timid and confused. Citizens wait for a kind of communal discussion that isn’t occurring and in that inaction there abides a certain kind of fear of the future.So, let’s talk among ourselves. We have heard enough requests for clarification in all this that the London Citizen’s Panel has opted to hold a special dialogue session at the London North Optimist Centre tomorrow night (Monday) from 7-9 p.m. This Panel is the group that has been urged by the City to hold consultation sessions with average citizens on the subject of income disparity, employment, and social assistance and was launched following the city’s Occupy protest. What transpired at Caterpillar is unique to our history and we need to talk about it because the big fear is that it is merely the beginning of the hollowing out of our labour force. What kind of community do we want? Should we create some kind of standard for when something like this happens again and we need to take an organized stand? Also, we need to determine if there’s something more we can do to assist the ElectroMotive workers. A general desire has emerged that we as a community need to stand by them in a time of devastating loss. How will we do that? Please come along and be part of that discussion.The French philosopher Rousseau came to a startling conclusion as he witnessed winds of change sweeping across his country: “A true democratic community produces a remarkable change in man. His faculties are exercised and developed, his ideas broadened, his feelings ennobled, and his whole soul elevated.” Sadly, not too many of our communities have even reached for this standard of conduct. Perhaps it’s because we’ve just been too distracted, trusting in those over us to guide society and our place within it. Well, now we can see what that has gotten us, and it’s not pretty. It leads to Caterpillar and many more like it. An unjust society slowly festers. Wealth escapes the common person, propelled ever upward by government that fails to secure it and a jungle kind of capitalism that refuses to release it.London has just had a shock to its system and, ironically, Caterpillar can be thanked for waking us from our slumber. This is our community that we have been letting slip between our fingers for years without paying attention. Okay, well now we’re alert and we need to talk. The commons belongs to us. The public domain belongs to us. But somehow the future seems belongs to an amoral free market. Only we can alter that path, but not if we refuse to meet, compromise, and determine that collectively we’ll take on the Caterpillars of the world even if governments won’t. We require a remarkable change in ourselves. That’s a tall order, but our chance for success starts on Monday night. Hope to see you then.