We have to be careful. Theoretically, one of AbitibiBowater's plants should be more modern than the Gatineau plant, namely the one in Amos. It was newly built in 1982. It was previously a Donohue plant. But whether I'm talking about the old plant in Kénogami or plants in Alma, Laurentide, Clermont, Baie-Comeau, Mersey, Thorold, Iroquois Falls, Thunder Bay or Fort Frances, all of these plants are ones in which the employer should be investing, although they do not have the same infrastructure as the Gatineau plant.
The Gatineau plant is the industry flagship. When we presented our recovery plan to senior managers, we made it clear to them that they could not survive following emergence without the Gatineau infrastructure as part of their restructuring plan. In a way, their biggest blunder was the pension plan. There was a shortfall of $1.3 billion in the 24 pension plans, which were supposed to have a capital of $5.7 billion.
The federal government can certainly do a number of things to help us and guarantee that we will be first in line among creditors when such events occur. The federal government may want to look at what happens elsewhere in the world when multinationals get rid of workers with about as much ceremony as when they throw an empty lighter in the garbage. Some workers are being refused their pension even though they had only two days, two weeks, two months or four years left to work. Forty-four maintenance workers in their fifties will not be able to retire. In addition, 39 operational workers are discouraged, because some of them only have a grade 7 education. We even realized that there is one member of that group who didn't even complete grade 2, although he had never told me that before. He did his work and he was a good worker. We also have women workers and office employees. Some 150 workers will not be able to retire. And the situation is the same in Dolbeau, although the workers in Dolbeau, despite their bad luck, were luckier than we are, because their plant was shut down for a year and a half, whereas ours has only been closed for four months. It's appalling what they're doing. They're getting rid of their workers.
Whatever your political party, you should impose your will. There is one government that imposed its will and wasn't afraid to make decisions, and it was the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. They seized the dam. If I had been able to seize the golf course, I would have. I asked the union's legal department to seize it. And the reason they put Dolbeau and Gatineau in the third wave of closures is because they liquidated our lay-off pay and notice. They ripped us off. Help us! In the name of the workers, I appeal to you for help! What they're doing is not right. It just isn't right. It's not just a commission. There should be a bailiff, and they should be put behind bars. They are thieves. That's what is happening. They are thieves.