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PAGE 2, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1980, WHITBY FREE PRESS Ffrestone offer a'piece of.garbage' A recent offer by Firestone Canada was labelled a 'piece of garbage' by United Auto Workers spokesman Bill Love. The offer made would have Firestone trying to transfer laid-off workers to other company plants. After a meeting last Tuesday, Love said there will be "no, or very limited, job placements in other Firestone plants". "The company has discouraged movement," he said. "Their offer is good publicity for the company, but, quite frankly, it is a piece of garbage for the workers." The company's proposal would allow a 50-year-old worker with 25 years ex- perience to move to the company's Hamilton plant and use his accumulated ex- perience to take an early retirement at 55. Love said the employee would then be eligible for an immediate pension based only on his five years service at the Hamilton plant. Pen- sion payment for the other 25 years would not be paid until the employee reached65. The subject of immediate pension payments for 164 union workers between the age of 45 and 55 has been the cause of hot debate between the company and union since the plant closure was an- nounced in April. The July 18 closure of the pland saw 650 employees lose their jobs. The union has dropped its demand that the 164 workers receive an immediate pen- sion rather than the deferred pension payable when at age 65, offered by the company. The union is now asking for severance payments at 4 per cent of each worker's earnings while at the plant. That severance payment would cost the plant between $5,000 and $8,000 per person, Love said. Employees under 45years of age will receive severan- ce payments while those Students may w alk this faIl Students planning to bus to school this fall may find themselves- walking if the current busing debate is not Education has said that it no settled. .longer wants to bus about The Durham Board of 250 high school students living south of Rossland Road because the town now has it's own municipal bus system. Councillor Bob Attersley, one of the councillors who pushed for the municipal transit system, says that the town buses cannot handle the added load the students would place on the system. Since the buses began running on July 16 they have been averaging about 250 passengers a day. Addition of the students would double that figure. "There is no way we can pick them up," said Atter- sley. There are 116 of them in one area alone. Currently one bus an hour (two at rush hours) pass any one point at a given time. With that schedule, the town system would not be able to accommodate the students. Attersley said that the town is presently trying to work out a system where by the board continues to bus the students or at least share the load with the town buses. This would bring about the need to rearrange the towns, bus routes, something the town had already planned. These new routes are ex- pected to be in effect by August 15, after town of- ficials study the results of a ridership survey compiled in the systems first month of operation. Forbes 'Doc' McEwen, the man in charge of implemen- ting Whitby's bus system, siad it would be hard to in- corporate the busing of students not only because of the extra load but because "we have a location problem." "Our system was designed to hit Woolco, the downtown, the GO station and the CONT'DON PG. 3 over 55, with 20 years ser- vice, are eligible for im- mediate pension. Love sees little hope of changing the company's policy concerning some sort of payment for the 164 affec- ted workers. "It's not promising in regard to get- ting any money for the 45 to 55 group," he said. "The company has just said no, they can't afford it." Go-c art bylaw before board Whitby Town Council has referred to the Ontario Municipal Board a bylaw refulating the licensing and racing of go-karts in the town. The bylaw, with another bylaw permitting the expan- sion of the Family Kartways track on Brock Street North, has been opposed by area residents who claim that there is not enough proptec- tion for them from the noise and smells of the operation. While council voted to send the matter to the OMB they took no action on the bylaw referring specifically to Family Kartways. Residents living to the immediate north of the track have said that the value of their property has been lowered by the expansion of the track and that noise has increased since the new track was put into operation this year. The Family Kartways facility is the largest of its kind on the North American continent. The lawyer representing the residents, Howard Schneider, said that the land has dropped in value about 30 per cent because of the additional traffic and noise created by the track. The residents have also claimed that the sound barrier erected by the track in compliance with the bylaw is not high enough to control noise. As of press time, no date for an OMB hearing has been set. 68 168