London Free Press

Kelly Gordon is scared.

Sitting at a table at a Tim Hortons, where she's stopped almost every day on her way to work at London's Electro-Motive Diesel plant, she talks of the uncertainty ahead.

A single mother to an 18-year-old daughter, Gordon has been a welder at EMD since 2005.

Like her colleagues, she stands to lose a lot, both under a proposed contract that would gut workers' pay and benefits, and by being locked out.

"I'm just numb," she said Sunday.

Since she entered the workforce more than 20 years ago, finding a stable, well-paying job has been a struggle for the 39-year-old.

With only a high school education, she tried to make ends meet for her and her young daughter by working multiple part-time jobs, until her step-father suggested she go to school for welding.

That was 13 years ago.

Since then, Gordon has tried her best to work her way up the manufacturing chain. She's held welding jobs at a variety of local plants and factories, many of which closed to move to the U.S.

For most of her life, she worked a part-time job at a grocery store besides her full-time jobs, because she couldn't make ends meet on $15 an hour.

When she heard about a job opening at EMD six years ago, she took action.

"Getting into Electro-Motive was really, really hard," she said. "I went back to school to practice, to make sure my welding and my test was going to be perfect . . . I reviewed blueprint notes and theory notes just to make sure I was on top of my game . . . Jobs like that don't open up everyday. I just wanted to make sure I didn't mess up that opportunity."

Gordon said many people don't understand jobs such as those at Electro-Motive take years of work to get.

"This is not an entry-level job. Everybody who works in that plant is very, very skilled."

Now, with a threat her $35-an-hour wage will be cut to $16, Gordon is panicking. She picks up her last pay cheque this week, unsure of her next move. She knows she won't be able to make ends meet on strike pay of $200 a week, but she also knows how hard it is to find work in a city with 9.8% unemployment.

"I know how hard it was to get a job when I was laid off before, and nobody's going to want to hire me now that we're on strike," she said.

"Most of my jobs are union jobs and when you have that on a resume and you go to a place that might be hiring . . . but they're only paying $10 or $15 an hour, they don't want to hire you . . . because they know the first chance you get to get out of there, you're going to be gone."

When she was laid off from Electro-Motive in 2008 for 20 months, Gordon had to go on social assistance and frequent the food bank. Still trying to climb out of the hole she found herself in then, Gordon said she doesn't have much savings.

She estimates she pays about $1,500 each month in bills, rent and insurance. Tack on food, gas, and clothing and her expenses get pretty high. She gets no child support from her daughter's father, who she left 16 years ago, and worries about being able to help her daughter pay for college.

"She's going to have to start off her own life in debt, all because of corporate greed," Gordon said.

E-mail alex.weber@sunmedia.ca