Mr. Speaker, the workers at the Pratt & Whitney plant in Longueuil are in mourning: the plant on Auvergne Street will shut down in 2010, ending an era in the labour movement. That is why the employees of this aerospace leader on the South Shore will be attending a funeral march at 3:30 p.m. today.
This is sad news and undoubtedly tough to take for the hundreds of workers and their families who are affected by this. Some of them have given their best years to the company.
And yet, Pratt & Whitney could have avoided the worst if the aerospace industry, which is concentrated in Quebec, had received as much support as the automobile industry in Ontario.
Although I cannot walk alongside these men and women today, I want them to know that my colleagues and I in the Bloc Québécois, particularly those from the South Shore whose constituents are also affected, offer them our complete solidarity.