Good day Norm,

As a 23 year veteran of a General Motors Powertrain plant in the city of St. Catharines, we have heard countless criticisms over the years regarding our industry and our work ethics.

First of all I would like to say thank you and congratulations. Thank you for the honest and refreshingly poignant article that you wrote in the London Free Press on December 27th 2008. Congratulations for not listening to the false statements that are often made about the autoworkers in Canada by many other members of the press, politicians and by many supposedly knowledgeable auto industry analysts that we have here at home.

The auto workers on the front lines in Canada can do little in this time of crisis in our industry. Nothing other than to do what we always have and that is to build the best quality vehicles that we can. We can, we have and we will continue to lobby our political representatives and write letters to the editor of our local papers but our fate ultimately is out of our hands. You are right when you say that if the CAW gives up some money, I hope that it doesn't come to that, that we should not diminish the men and women who make our cars. That we should not blame them but applaud them.

Well sir, I applaud you and I want to thank you for writing such a great article.

Sincerely,


Bob Bowman