TORONTO, April 8 /CNW/ – Canadiana Auto Workers (CAW)  President Ken Lewenza will be joined by a coalition of Northern Ontario Mayors and regional politicians for a meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty today (Thursday, April 8) at 4:30 to urge the Ontario government to use their power to stop the closure of Xstrata’s Timmins metallurgical operations.

The site is slated to close May 1 and will mean the loss of 670 direct jobs and as many as 4,428 indirect jobs across the region.  The coalition of politicians and union representatives is urging the Ontario government to use its power under the provincial Mning Act to bring Swiss mining giant Xstrata to the table to negotiate on extending the life of the facility.

“Multinational corporations can only take from a country as much as governments allow them to and in our country, federal and provincial governments have allowed companies to take far too much, giving little consideration to the long term impact for the country,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza.

“We’re calling on the Ontario government to stand up for the people of Northern Ontario who have seen their communities decimated by companies who have swallowed up Canadian natural resources and then cut jobs. Xstrata is just the most recent example.”

Participants include:

• Timmins James Bay MP Charlie Angus
• Timmins James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson

• Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren
• Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez
• Smooth Rock Falls Mayor Kevin Somer
• Iroquois Falls Mayor Gilles Forget
• Black River-Matheson Mayor Mike Milinkovich

• CAW National President Ken Lewenza
• Assistant to the National President Jerry Dias
• CAW Local 599 President Dennis Couvrette
• CAW Xstrata chairperson Ben Lefebvre
• National Representative Tom Dattilo
• CAW Researcher Bill Murnighan