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On April 24, the Canadian government announced they had signed of a letter of intent with GM of Canada to retool part of the GM Oshawa facility for the manufacture of Level 1 masks.
We welcome this step forward – but more needs to be done. In particular, many front line workers face a desperate shortage of N95 masks. N95 masks are critical for the protection of workers dealing directly with people who may be infected.
General Motors Canada has said they have no plans to manufacture N95 masks in Oshawa. This is inexplicable, since the Oshawa production is going to be modeled on mask production that is already up and running at a GM facility in Warren, Michigan – and the workers in Warren are manufacturing both Level 1 masks and N95 masks.
This breakthrough is the result of grass roots organizing by unions, community members, front line health care workers and others. An online petition sponsored by Green Jobs Oshawa generated hundreds of emails to the Premier, the Prime Minister, federal party leaders and MPs and MPPs. Key supporters included Michael Hurley (President of the Ontario Coalition of Hospital Unions/CUPE), Patty Coates (President of the Ontario Federation of Labour), the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Leap, the Council of Canadians, the Durham Region Labour Council, Oshawa NDP MPP Jennifer French, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton, and many others.
General Motors and Oshawa are in a unique position to provide even more meaningful assistance to Canadians; we could use more of the mostly idled 10 million square foot Oshawa complex and employ more of the highly skilled workers in the community. Laid off GM workers will be recalled for the mask work, but an expanded operation could also provide employment for some of the thousands of supplier and other workers who lost their jobs due to GM’s abandonment of vehicle production in Oshawa last December.
Green Jobs Oshawa is continuing to press our governments to use this as the opportunity to plan a permanent manufacturing centre for strategically important medical supplies. Such a facility should be publicly owned, and would mean that Canadians would not be caught in the “wild-west” scramble for essential goods in a future crisis. It could also serve as a research and manufacturing hub to develop products that we will need for conversion to a sustainable energy economy. Pandemics are not the only world-wide crises heading our way.
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