Organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour, the province-wide Drive To Work Caravan aims to mobilize public support for helping the jobless, including through buy- Canadian policies and easing of qualifying rules for unemployment insurance.

The Hamilton leg is the last stop before the caravan converges with two others in Toronto next Thursday. Local events kick off with a rally at Hamilton General Hospital late Tuesday afternoon to protest lost healthcare jobs and include tours through the Stoney Creek and Hamilton industrial strips the next day.

The campout at Confederation Park culminates with a barbecue and concert on Wednesday evening, all of it free and open to the public.

“There’s a lack of action by the provincial and federal governments,” said Don Fraser, president of the Hamilton and District Labour Council, citing the toll that the closure of U. S. Steel is having on families throughout the city.

“I think it’s a shame that when we’ve got Stelco Hilton Works shut down, Lake Erie Works shut down, there’s been six boatloads of imported, foreign steel that’s come into Hamilton Harbour and been unloaded at the docks here,” he told a press conference.

“There’s no politician at any level that has been raising this issue,” he charged. “If we don’t make that an issue, why would they start up any of the shut-down steel plants when they can bring in imported steel into this country?”

Deirdre Pike, a social planner with the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton and chair of a local anti-poverty group, said government action is needed before more people in the city slip into the ranks of the poor.

Those living on employment insurance face a grim future because most jobs don’t pay enough to live on and social assistance rates are too low, she said.

“They’ll be living in poverty before you know it,” Ms. Pike said. “The reality is it would be better if we could stop it at this end and keep good jobs, and we need to have people that are not in precarious work making less than a living wage,” she said.

“The kinds of jobs that Hamilton has been able to offer in the past were manufacturing jobs that were good jobs, with benefits, that were union-supported jobs. And now folks are struggling, fighting over the bottom, trying to get into Tim Hortons, for Pete’s sake.”

Tony DePaulo, area co-ordinator for the United Steelworkers of America, said the caravan hopes to give voice to the unemployed to make Ottawa and Queen’s Park understand the impact of U. S. Steel’s shutdown and policies like free trade.