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Times-Advocate, 1988-10-05, Page 1• Imes Serving South Huron, North Middlesex dv�cate & North Lambton Since 1873 One Hundred and Seventeenth Year EXETER, ON ARiO, October 5, 1988 Price Per Copy 60 Cents MEXI CAI WAGES H LL Z00 JOBS PICKET TACTICS - Canadian Auto Workers strikers picket the plant in longer demand better wages or benefits, but they slowed down the Huron Park where they worked until Friday._ Their- picket lines could no progress of trucks emptying the factory. Company not bluffing after workers reject offer in 91-87 vote HURON PARK - Two hundred people watched their jobs disappear Saturday morning as Fleck Manu- facturing made good its threat to close the Huron Park plant if the union membership voted to strike. "We didn't think this would actu- ally.happen," said Sheila Charlton, union chairperson for the plant, who said it was hard to believe the threats the company was making at the bargaining table. "They told us if we shut it clown we'd be gone," Charlton said, but claimed she didn't regret the deci- sion to strike. The union knew the loss of Fleck from Huron Park was inevitable, and sought a severance package from the company along with a 60 -cent payrise on the aver- age wage of about $7 an hour. Fleck offered a 22 -cent pay in- crease for a one-year contract and no severance deal, with the warning that strike meant immediate plant closure. Charlton stresses that the union recommended neither approval nor rejection of the company's offer. The workers of Canadian Auto Workers Local 1620 entered a legal strike position at midnight Saturday and by 4 a.m. trucks had moved in to disassemble the wiring harness plant. The company also operates a non- union factory in Tillsonburg and a plant in Mexico. "How can we compete with 91 cents an hour?" asked Charlton, quoting the Mexican workers' wag- es; Even with better quality control in Canada, production in the low- tech, labour-intensive industry is still far cheaper in Mexico. The Huron Park plant was the scene of a notorious and violent strike in 1978. Charlton said the union will con- tinue to picket the plant until it is finally empty. Committe representative Star Wright expressed concern some em- ployees may not be able to find jobs elsewhere with the poor repu- tation being a Fleck -worker brings. However, she agreed many em- ployees in the months before the strike was called left the company for work elsewhere. Wright pointed out the Huron Park plant was responsible for some of Fieck's successes. It was the only plant to earn Ford's Q1 rating for quality control and Wright notes it was the Huron Park plant that repaired the faulty wirin Picase turn to page All parties getting ready for federal election campaign EXETER = Shortly after Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced November 21 as the date of the next federal election, officials of three parties in the Huron -Bruce riding announced their nomination meet- ing plans. The Huron Conservative Associa- tion has scheduled their nomination meeting for Thursday night October 13 at 8 p.m. at the Lucknow Com- munity Centre. Murray Cardiff who has represent- ed the Huron -Penh riding for thc past eight years is expected to be unopposed for the Conservative -nomination. Cardiff was first elected to the House Of Commons during the February 18, 1980 election when he ton to the. Huron county border, defeated Liberal Graeme Craig and south of Exeter. Valerie Bolton of the New Demo- The number of eligible voters in cratic Party. the Huron -Bruce riding has in - He was re-elected in 1984 by de- _ creased from . 64,000 to near (eating Bruce McDonald of the Lib- 90,000. orals and NDP candidate Tony The nomination meeting for the McQuail. Huron -Bruce federal Liberals will Added to the expanded Huron- also bc held at the Lucknow Corri- Bnice federal riding are the towns of , munity Centre. It goes on Wednes- Kincardine, Southampton, Paisley, - day, October 12. Port Elgin and Tiverton along with A party official said Monday af- thc townships of Kincardine, Bruce, tcrnoon that Ken Dunlop, the may- Saugeen and Greenoch. or of Port Elgin has declared his Deleted for this election are the candidacy. Bruce McDonald, the town of Mildmay and the township Liberal candidate in the 1984 clec- of Carrick. The riding now-strechcs - .tion has maintained his interest in for 90 miles in a northerly and party activities since that time and southerly direction from Southamp- could be in the running. Dispute EXETER - PUC manager Hugh Davis hopes a dispute between the Exeter utility and the township of. Usborne can be resolved before it gets to court. The disagreement is over who will pay the costs in- curred when a section of pipeline bringing water to Exeter from the Cudntore and Morgan wells in Us - borne had to be relocated during repair of the Anderson bridge. Davis gave a brief history of the situation after the regular Septem- ber PUC meeting at which he an- nounced preliminary' hearings in the matter are scheduled to begin in late October. He said the PUC consulted with Usbome council at the time the pipeline was installed in the late 1970s, although the utility had the legal authority to lay the line. The PUC asked the neighbouring municipality to pick the route the line would take through the town- ship. In addition, the ,PUC and Exeter council agreed its 'tvlt`ra t - vacant lots on the north side of Huron St. between the second concession and town, and to make requested connections to any buildings fronting the new line while it was being constructed. Davis said a municipality is re- sponsible for paying all costs if a heading to court pipeline is relocated. Usborne did . not want to pay any of the cost of moving the line at the timc_of the bridge reconstruction. The PUC went ahead with relocating the line, not wanting to hold up con- struction, and hoping to iron out the dispute later. Late last summer, Davis phoned the MTC to confirm that Usborne was eligible for a 50 percent sub- sidy,. and passed that information _ao_by .phone. in_addition, the PUC offered to pay half of the re- maining costs. • After waiting six weeks and receiving no reply, the Exeter PUC sent out a bill with a 25 percent credit. No resolution was reached in the succeeding months, despite discussions and meetings between Exeter and Usborne officials. Fi- nally Usborne put the matter in the hands of their lawyer. The Exeter PUC then initiated court proceedings. - "Our Commission tried to reach a compromise. We have tried not to create dissension between Us - borne and Exeter rate payers, as we have always had good rela- tions. 1 hope this won't go to court. as there will be no win- ners", Davis said. The PUC also carried out a ran- dom check on farm wells in Us - borne to see whether or not their wells were affecting other water supplies. Five privately owned wells were checked nine times be- tween April and September. The greatest decrease in a well on the same a4uifcr as the PUC wells in that period was 1.69 metres. None of the wells went dry in 1988 during the driest summer on rom Grc:us Construe - . ton as to e PUC sharing die cost of extending the water main as far as the boundary road for his development at the corner of Waterloo and Mary Streets was discussed. Commissioners agreed the PUC will pay nb part of frontage or flankage costs. "We can't play Santa Claus, if we pay, the town pays, and the subdivider makes a profit on the property", Commissioner Harry. De Vries pointed out. Davis wanted to know if the PUC would reimburse Gregus for some of the cost in the event the property on the south side was lat- er incorporated into the town. "At the cost he put it in", was De Vries' reply. Another possible candidate is Vern Ingles, president of the For- mosa Mutual Insurance Company. The Dungannon Senior Citizens Hall will be the site of the nomina- tion meeting for the Huron -Bruce New Democratic party. The meet- ing will be held on Saturday, Octo- ber 8 at 7:30 p.m. There are two prospective candidates; Norma Peterson and Tony McQuail are seeking the nomina- tion. Both have run in previous elections and have served in munic- Please turn to page 2 Local advisor for Biloxi Blues play EXETER - Biloxi Blues will be on stage of the Grand Theatre in London this fall and an Exeter man will have a hand in its operation. Phil Campbell of town has been named the military technical advisor for the shod+ which runs from Octo- ber 18 to November 12. The Neil Simon play directed by Martha Henry involves around 10 weeks of military basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1943. In additon to service in thc Cana- dian Armed Forces during the sec- ond World War, Campbell served with the United States Army on an TO UGHG UARD Ready for world-wide distribution Page 5 COMMENCEMENT Many awards at South Huron District High School Page 6 1946 to 1948. • In a different capacity, Campbell portrayed a Canandian drill sergeant in the 1940 air force movie "Vul- can" which was filmed at the former Grand Bend RCAF station late in 1987 and was shown later on Glo- bal television. - We'iI be late Due to the Thanksgiving holiday �n Monday, the Exeter Times Ad- vocate will be published one day later than usual next week. Advertising deadlines will be ex- tended to 4 p.m., Tuesday and the paper will be printed Wednesday night for Thursday morning deliv- ery. GREAT CROWD More than 10,000 at Ildetton Fair Pages 10 and 11 Humphreys quits EXETER - A third vacancy was created on Exeter council Monday night when councillor Tom Humphreys announced he would not seek re-election on November 14. . Two weeks earlier Humphreys indicated he would seek another term; but changed his mind after deliberating during a recent four day stay in hospital. He cited a full -time job including shift work in London as one of . the reasons for his decision. He added, "I would be pleased to be con- sidered for a position on one of council's boards". _ Humphreys will be retiring along with fellow councillor Peter Snell and Gaylan Josephson. Tender for purchase of fire hall accepted and tabled EXETER - Council Monday night accepted in principle and ta- bled for two weeks a tender applica- tion to purchase thc present Exeter fire hall at the corner of Main and Victoria streets. The bid fpr $150,000 came from E. Kastro of Thornhill. Two other potential bids were withdrawn be- fore Monday night's meeting. The two week delay is to allow council to discuss further terms of the sale with the prospective pur- chaser. . ' In reply to a question from coun- cillor Ben Hoogenboom Fegrading concerns of some members of the fire department in not knowing what was going on, Mayor Bruce Shaw replied, " The proposed sale was discussed by the arca fire board and they agreed to let the town make the decision and fire chief Gary Middleton was in on discus- sions from the very beginning". While" voicing that concern Hoo- genboom added, " 1 have been in fa- vour of a change of location of the fire hall for some time because of the serious traffic problem at that intersection". • Reeve Bill Micklc added, " in re- gard to firemen, they will have • plenty of chance to participate in future decisions. We are willing to. sit down with them. The matter of property was completely up to council". October 15 is deadline for voter list changes EXETER - Area municipal clerks terpretation of this section. have been notified that the date for The letter from Municipal Affairs - making applications to revise the says, " Based on this decision, mu - preliminary list of voters for the nicipal offices should be open on November 14 election has been Saturday, October 15 for the same changed. - hours which they would open on The Ministry of Municipal Af- regular weekdays". fairs has announc ks will also be prepared to ac - deadline for requesting changes will ceps nominationsTor' erlef tlfb F be at 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 14 municipal election in addition to 15. voters list changes. The change from Monday, Octo- This means that nomination pa- ber 17 ari from "the judgment of pers may bc filed at municipal of - Justice Hu es on North York's in- fires on October 13, 14, 15 and 17. 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