Everything.
About 90% of the Coppley staff in Hamilton are women and immigrants. Over 75% of the women there can't even read or speak English.
We have jobs that allow us to support our families. We are skilled workers who take pride in our high-end, quality products. The problem is that our industry is under serious pressure. We wonder if our jobs will be there five years from now. For those of us who have done this type of work for most of our adult lives, retraining does not make any sense to us, because we are older people. Many of us cannot even speak English or French as a second language.
We work at good-quality, union-wage manufacturing jobs to support our families. What I'm trying to say is that we just need to save our jobs. Most of the time we work eight hours, six hours, four hours. We can't afford to live on half of our pay. We can't even afford to have a car. We can't pay for insurance or make payments on a car because we're not making enough money. Levi's closed down in Hamilton, and most of the people there came to our company, but we could only take so many. They were making $15 an hour or $14 an hour, but they had to start at $8 an hour and up.
It's very difficult for us to even buy a house, because we don't know if we're going to work six months at eight hours or six hours, or whatever. Most of us use public transportation.
I don't understand how Americans can have safeguards. So can Europe and South Africa. Why can't Canada have them? We are trying to protect our jobs and have jobs for our families when they grow up. Why is it so difficult to do that? Most of us came to Canada to better our lives, but if we don't have work, we cannot do that. We're willing to work. We don't want to go on welfare or unemployment. If our company closes down five years from now, I don't know what most of us will do. So please, I hope someone listens and will do something to save our jobs.