Losing it All

“It’s bad, really bad,” said Russ Wideman, who is struggling to keep his family’s home.


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North America is the world’s richest industrial economy, with the most productive workforce on earth. But for how much longer? What will be left if we continue selling off our best jobs?
Revitalizing North
America's Might


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German Firm Moves 4000  Kelowna Jobs to the U.S.

Shining pride and stark bitterness describe the people who build the world-renowned Western Star trucks in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

There is pride, because they know they built the best trucks in the world.

They are bitter because the 1,000-plus IAM members will lose their jobs when parent company Freightliner, itself a division of Daimler/Chrysler, leaves this picturesque Okanagan Valley community and moves production to Portland, Oregon. But this pride is all they can cling to. The October 12 announcement from Daimler in Stuttgart, Germany sent shockwaves through this community.

More than 4,000 permanent and part-time jobs could disappear from the Kelowna area. At Monashee Manufac-turing, a company where IAM members produce parts and do custom machining for Western Star, employment there has gone from a high of 125 members working three shifts to a meager 23.

Russ Wideman from Western Star, whose life is complicated by the additional worry of fighting for Workers’ Compensation benefits for a serious wrist injury, says, “We’ve still got a mortgage on this home and the way things are going we’re close to losing it. It’s bad, really bad. Our kids understand. They know we can’t do the things we used to do. We can’t even go camping this year. It’s a struggle to get my daughter into soccer because of the financial problems. It’s a struggle to do anything that costs money.”

Kevin Weisbeck says he will have to uproot his family and move to Calgary to pursue a new career in the computer field.

“There’s just no future here,” says Kevin who was already on layoff, but expected to be recalled this spring, when news of the permanent closure came.

“It was a pretty sick feeling when you realize some corporation on the other side of the planet has that much control over your life. ‘Move it south’ was the word from on high...  (and) there doesn’t seem to be any government prepared to stand up to these competitors.”