The crisis in Canada’s manufacturing sector has been particularly acute in Ontario’s Durham Region. Our story Autoworkers at a crossroads has been documenting how the recession has been playing out in the area, and more specifically in the lives of Oshawa residents Brian and Cassandra.
The desire to look beyond traditional manufacturing and explore alternative economic [...]
April 22nd 2010 1 Comment
Durham Region & the Art of Transition
Tags: english posts · news
April 16th 2010 No Comments
Crisis & career change
The career advice business is doing well these days. Google “career change” and you get a long list of sponsored ad-links – agencies that will sell you tips on refreshing your old resume, conquering job interview anxiety, or reinventing yourself for the post-recession economy.
Some agencies are geared to modest aspirations, with offers of “interesting [...]
Tags: english posts · news
March 23rd 2010 No Comments
Welding Combo
Today we put online Welding 101, the 3rd in a documentary series about Brian, a former auto worker who has to retrain. I’m saying “who has to,” because if it was up to him, he’d still be a proud GMer. One of the boys at the Oshawa plant. But the Oshawa plant – as we [...]
Tags: economy · english posts
March 5th 2010 No Comments
Oshawa’s auto-workers vs. the “Sons-of-Mitches”
Cassandra – who’s featured alongside her husband Brian in our new story Autoworkers at a Crossroads – traces her family connection to General Motors back to the historic Oshawa Strike of 1937.
Her great-grandfather was among the 4,000 assembly-line workers who went on strike against GM in April of that year. Among their demands; an 8-hour [...]
Tags: english posts · news
February 5th 2010 No Comments
An auto-worker speaks
We start a new story this Friday Feb 5 on GDP – featuring a couple from Oshawa, in the Durham region of Ontario – an area that’s been hit hard by massive job losses in the auto sector.
Thanks to Connie Snelgrove and the team at Oshawa’s CAW Community Action for introducing us to [...]
Tags: economy · english posts · news
January 11th 2010 No Comments
Oshawa’s labour
Tim McSorley, who is working with both CITIZENShift – a Canadian new media project – and our GDP project, last year invited Jeff Armstrong – a first time contributor to CITIZENShift to prepare a podcast about the labour movement during times of the economic crisis. We are revisiting, thanks to CITIZENShift’s online podcasts section.
Here is [...]
Tags: economy · english posts · news
December 23rd 2009 5 Comments
Jobless Recovery in Durham Region
Talk of an economic recovery may be dominating the business pages – but it’s ringing pretty hollow in the Durham region, east of Toronto, where the economic hardship continues for many communities reeling from the downturn in the auto sector.
“People talk about a recovery – but I’m just not seeing it,” says Connie Snelgrove, coordinator [...]
Tags: english posts · news
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