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Employment Insurance: Unemployment hits Windsor autoworkers

Employment insurance is a legacy of the Great Depression, and remains a pillar of Canada's social safety net. The system was created to provide an income while unemployed workers find new jobs, but expanded to include seasonal workers, new parents and those caring for ill relatives. Canada's EI system was once among the most generous plans in the world, but tightened rules in 1996 brought surpluses in the billions of dollars. CBC Digital Archives documents how employment insurance has evolved since 1941.

Frank Blair has been without a job for eight months. In his hometown of Windsor, Ont., the father of two (soon to be three) is not alone: some 21,000 members of the local labour force are out of work in late 1957, half of them workers in the city's idled auto plants. Unemployment insurance helps, but with just $28 per week (about $213 in 2008 dollars), the Blair family is still struggling. This CBC-TV profile of Windsor's unemployment problem also talks to the city's optimistic mayor and concludes that the government and the union will work together for a solution. 
• Windsor, Ont. has been a hub of the automotive industry in Canada since 1904, when a group of local businessmen launched Ford Motor Company of Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. carmaker headquartered just across the river in Detroit.
  • According to the Toronto Star, Ford of Canada laid off 2,400 workers from its plants in Windsor and Oakville, Ont. in November 1957. The company cited a lag in sales for the layoffs, a problem which was affecting the industry as a whole. A further 6,200 workers in the two cities were laid off in January 1958.  

Medium: Television
Program: Close-Up
Broadcast Date: Jan. 5, 1958
Guest(s): Frank Blair, George Burt, Harry Lascaline, Michael Patrick , John A. Sharrer
Host: Charles Templeton
Reporter: George Ronald
Duration: 13:55

Last updated: February 8, 2012

Page consulted on March 20, 2013

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