CANADIAN LABOUR-TORONTO/OTTAWA:

SUPPORT NORTEL WORKERS AND PENSIONERS:

The following call for two upcoming demonstrations is from the website of the Canadian Auto Workers. As in most bankruptcies in our society it is the workers who get the short end of the stick. Molly urges her readers to go to the CAW website where there is wealth of information about what is happening around the closing down of Nortel. As that website says, "Bankruptcy law is designed to protect the banking and money lending system; it is not designed to protect those who have given their lives to the service of a company. Those few changes that have been made to better protect working people and those that have retired from work, have come at the insistance of unions, including the CAW."

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Support the Nortel Workers and Pensioners Rallies:
Nortel Networks initiated financial restructuring in Canada under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) earlier this year. As a result, the company stopped paying severance, transition allowances and deferred wages to all former employees and retirees.

The CAW is joining with the Nortel Retirees and former employee Protection Canada (NRPC) to demand that both the federal and provincial government ensure that Nortel workers get the benefits they were promised and not to allow a wind-up of the Nortel pension fund.

CAW members, Nortel retirees and supporters will be gathering for two rallies, demanding that both levels of government guarantee pensions and other promised benefits:

Wednesday, October 7 at 12 noon at Queen's Park in Toronto and Wednesday, October 21 at 12 noon on Parliament Hill.

"Governments in the U.S. and U.K. have acted on behalf of the Nortel workers in their countries, why is the Canadian government ignoring this potential tragedy," says CAW President Ken Lewenza.

Check the CAW website at www.caw.ca/en/5511 for more information or contact CAW Retired Workers Director Jenny Ahn at: 1-800-268-5763