Our town's been through a rough patch. Of course, just about everyone's town has been through a rough patch in recent years.
But this week has been a better week for Hamilton.
A deal was finally struck between labour and management at US Steel, where the workers have been locked out for 11 months. US Steel used to be Stelco, and for a long time was one of the backbone industries of Hamilton. The lockout was long and difficult. Workers are not jumping for joy over the deal. But ... they're going back to work. And that's good news.
And today in the paper - 670 new jobs coming with Maple Leaf Foods' new plant being built here. I'm acknowledging right away that other, smaller plants in Ontario are closing, and that is rough news. But I'm thankful that we're on the good news end this time.
I also am a big fan of Maple Leaf Foods after the listeriosis problem a few years ago. I wrote about that here and here. And just the other day when our 3 favourites were coming over, I deliberately chose Maple Leaf bacon as part of our not-quite-nutritional breakfast.
So Maple Leaf is moving in next to Canada Bread. As one my friends already said - all we need now is some mustard!
