Online Petition for Fair Severance For NG Sudbury Workers! (5/13/10)

“I watched grown men break down and cry after the announcement,” said Bruce Lawrence, who worked in maintenance and as a forklift operator for 38 years at the National Grocers warehouse in Sudbury, Ontario.

“People were just in shock,” said Dennis Grattone, who worked at the Sudbury warehouse for 12 years and supports three children. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it.”

On March 3, National Grocers’ owner Loblaw Companies Limited announced it was closing its Sudbury warehouse after 60 years, leaving more than 125 people without work. With only eight weeks’ notice, the workers are scrambling to figure out how they will survive.

To make matters worse, Loblaw is paying the Sudbury managers enhanced severance while offering the workers the minimum amount allowed by law and reneging on their longstanding practice and promise to negotiate a fair and equitable severance.

"It's not enough that the company closed a profitable warehouse and put all these people out of work, now they are trying to stick it to them on the way out," said RWDSU Northern Joint Council President Derik McArthur.

Activists can send a message to Loblaw that working people expect them to live up to their promise to negotiate a fair severance payment in good faith.

Sign the online petition.