Sudbury will become 'a ghost town' if jobs go south

The mood at Sudbury Hospital Services was a grim one Thursday afternoon.

That's because the 38 laundry workers who asked the provincial labour minister for a meeting after their shift had no visitors.

The workers are set to be laid off in March because Health Sciences North is changing service providers. The hospital says it can save $500,000 annually by sending laundry south to be cleaned.

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn was in town Thursday on other business, so the workers thought it would be a good idea to meet and talk about their options and concerns.

Flynn told CBC News he wasn't directly invited to meet with the group, but that he was open to it. Flynn also mentioned that although he sympathizes with the workers, he didn't want to get involved in private business matters.

"I can only put myself in the workers' shoes and imagine what it's like to lose a job," Flynn said. "But at the same time, you've got to respect the decisions that are made by the hospital board."

'This is just the start'

When it comes to keeping jobs in the north, Minister Flynn told CBC News it's important to identify the skills and advantages of people in the area, then capitalize on them like those in the mining and technology industries.

Gisele Dawson, a Sudbury Hospital Services worker and the local CUPE union president, says she agrees. But she also mentioned nothing is being done to keep the jobs that are already here.

"I think the community needs to understand that we're just the start," she says. "We want someone to lobby for us to have a hub for shared services here in the north that would create and keep jobs here."

'It'll be a ghost town'

Her coworker, Lucie St. Louis, said her 15-year-old granddaughter wants to go to school in Toronto because she knows she'll have a better chance of getting a good job there.

St. Louis has worked for SHS for 30 years. She says she doesn't think Sudbury will be the same city in 20 years if this employment trend continues.

"It'll look like Elliot Lake. It'll be a ghost town," St. Louis said. " A lot of people are going to the south, they're moving down south because the jobs are being sent down there."

The Sudbury Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that "any loss of jobs is concerning for the community, but at the chamber we do not interfere with operational decision making by local businesses."

Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault's office says it's scheduled to meet with the laundry workers on Jan. 24.