If you can’t quite sate your curiosity here be sure to check out the other two sites that will take you further into the troubles faced by Windsor today.

The Penny Pincher Press

The Windsor Wonder

That is the reality being faced by the Knights of Columbus clubs in Windsor, and it is directly related to the onslaught of the recession.

The recession is affecting the Knight’s and their ability to give back to the community. But one man stands tall with his sword and cape, and looks the recession straight in the eye. He’s not knocked down by the recession; in fact, he doesn’t let anything get in his way.

This man is Leroy Eid. Born in the West Indies, Eid has worked endlessly to achieve his goals.
Eid has earned his place in the world. Eid was a driving instructor, a teacher, and a faculty advisor. He even received “Family of the Year” award in 2004-2005. Eid taught secondary public school for 33 years where he was the department head of science, and worked for 4 years as a university faculty advisor.
He has donated the majority of his time and hard work into bettering the Knights of Columbus in Windsor, as well as the whole community.

But it’s not only giving back to the community. Knights (and new members) can insure their families obtain benefits by paying dues, and new members by initiation are called First Degree.

Founded in October of 1881, Father Michael McGivney had an idea to make an organization for men that would protect their families if anything happened. His ideas were to better society and enrich culture through living honestly and helping those less fortunate. “First and always Catholic” was his motto.

McGivney was a creative idealist who always had time for his parish, his friends, his family, and those in need. He was only 25 when he began his first priestly assignment at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut. McGivney grew to be a model for children, especially in times of violence.
But it wasn’t always easy for McGivney. His idea to help others grew from his own life experiences. He knew of struggle. McGivney’s parents escaped the mid-19th century potato famine in Ireland. His family worked hard, and banded together to survive, however, many of his neighbours living in the Irish ghettos were not as lucky.

With McGivney’s idea of the Knights of Columbus, volunteers would give back to the community and help those who are less fortunate.

Today, the Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest lay Catholic family service organization. With more than 1.4 million Catholic men today, there are over 7,500 local councils throughout the globe. These 7,500 local councils represent more than 6 million Knights and their families today. But the Knights of Columbus is not just an organization.

The Knights of Columbus focuses on three principles: Charity, Unity and Fraternity (in this order). The Knights of Columbus help charities, communities and churches, and have donated more than 57 million volunteer hours, and more than $116 million dollars in restoring churches.
Last year alone, the Knights of Columbus organization donated $41 million dollars to charity, and over the last ten years, they have donated $225 million dollars.

By helping others, the Knights of Columbus enrich their own lives. The Knights focus on the ideas of Columbianism. Their main priority is charity. After charity, the Knights focus on Unity – to make their efforts of charity as well as their brotherly bond stronger. By strengthening their bond as a fraternity, the Knights can overcome any hardships together. Finally, the brothers remain patriotic to their country, and patriotic to their God.

Eid truly is a Knight. He has been a member for 41 years. “I was built for service,” he smiles. Eid is one of the highest 3rd degree District Deputies. He manages 6 counsels below him.
Eid has held all offices in the 3rd degree, with the exception of the appointed office position of Financial Secretary. But Eid is also a 4th degree. “To must be a fourth, you must be a third,” he tells me.

The fourth degree represents patriotism. “We are like the visible arm of the Knights of Columbus. We wear special types of regalia.”

Eid’s wife of 44 years, Diane beats him to the finish line in naming off the significance of the colours. With red representing Regular Officers, the top of the hierarchy is blue, which is the Supreme Director.

“You’re as good as me!” Eid says, smiling at Diane.

“Of course,” she says nonchalant, and continues to read the paper. It’s too bad that women cannot join the Knights, because Diane knows just as much about it as any male member.

Prior to becoming a District Deputy, he was a Chartered Grand Knight and was involved in the formation of a new Parish counsel in Windsor. Eid formed this counsel from scratch in St. Peter’s Church.

Eid dedicated his time to writing articles for the Knights to help educate them. He wrote ‘To Your Health’ which sparks awareness about staying healthy as well as information about diabetes and prostate cancer.
The Knights also participate in annual charity events, including raising money and hosting car raffles for the Arthritis Association. The Knights support Hiatus House, the Special Olympics and even sell papers with the Good Fellows.

“One of our Knights died of cancer,” Eid says as he goes through pictures of past Knights events. “We raise money for hospice… We tend to keep charity in our own area. We’re going to be starting Coats for Kids this year too.”

Eid and his wife attend St. Peter’s Church and Parish of the Atonement, where they both give back to the community, by assembling toiletry packs and donations to the homeless.

“We go to both churches, so we’re involved!” laughs Diane.

When confronted by the recession, Eid and his wife shake their heads no. “I’m impervious to the meltdown. It has affected new members and potential candidates, but not me. I’m retired,” says Eid. They continue to explain the affect the recession has had on the Knights of Columbus.

Eid explains that members have moved out west in search of jobs, and attendance has decreased due to finances. Many people cannot afford to pay their dues or purchase the uniforms.
But regardless of dues, the Knights still welcomed the men. “The ones out west still tried to pay.”

“Wherever you go,” Diane says, “You will be warmly received.”

When asked if Eid could go back and redo it all, he smiled and nodded.

“I can’t change the world but I feel I’ve made a difference.”

Those interested in becoming a Knight can apply, although there are minor restrictions. One must be a Catholic male over the age of 18, and one must live up to the Commandments, as well as the Precepts of the Church.

Today, Knights of Columbus councils exist throughout the world, in places such as Guam, the Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, Panama, Cuba, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Mexico, the United States and finally Canada.

A sharp whistle cuts the air and everyone’s head turns to Astrid, the young woman standing with a group of friends at the counter. “Excuse me, everyone,” she calls, “Can I get you to clap along with me real quick?” Some join in dubiously, looking to their friends for support. She dances to the beat for a few seconds before suddenly belting out a soulful rendition of “Happy Birthday” to the red-faced woman standing beside her, hands clasped to her mouth. She finishes with a vocal flourish, they both hug, and they pay for their coffee.

Welcome to the Green Bean Cafe, the newest student-focused coffee shop in Windsor. Located just two doors down from the University Bookstore on Wyandotte, the recent arrival opened its doors earlier this year, in September.

Ben Davidson, preparing a latte.

“We have a lot of regulars, and we’re seeing a lot of new faces too,” he says, “which is great!”

He twists the nozzle shut and carefully carries the steaming mug to a table. “Enjoy,” he says to the students, wiping his hands on his apron before sitting down with me.

Although Green Bean opened its doors in September, the road that led to the cafe’s current success started in January, when Ben and his partner Michelle first had the idea to open a coffee shop.

“It was pretty much when things were looking the worst,” says Ben. “As we were doing our research, because what we’re doing is targeting students so much, we felt like this was going to be recession-proof. Most students are working off of student loans or their parent’s money. When students need a meal, it’s going to have to be low-cost.” He shifts in his chair and sips from a tall mug of tea.

“Plus, there’s nothing we saw that says that during a recession, students spend less or enrolment goes down. Not that it doesn’t happen, but we didn’t find any statistical evidence. We also knew that the engineering building was going up across the street, so that’s two years’ worth of construction workers and fifteen hundred students. We’re going from being next to campus, to being surrounded by campus.”

Still, despite the fact that the engineering building seems to have entered into limbo, Green Bean is doing very well for its third month of operation. Why are students flocking to this new establishment in droves? For one, on-campus food prices have risen in recent months in a direct reaction to suppliers’ raising their prices.

“A lot of the students now are looking at price point,” says Paolo, a manager at the Marketplace, one of six food service centres on University campus.

“A lot of the costs have gone up, so it’s difficult to keep prices low. We still have overhead costs. Even Tim Horton’s has raised their prices, as far as expenses, so it forces us to raise our prices too. With us, the population of students is down. Normally they have 1900 students that stay on campus, but now it’s less than that, probably around 1300. The number of students who live on campus has a huge impact, because we base our numbers on the amount of students we have. The less students we have, the expenses are still here, we still have the same amount of staff.”

So the campus and off-campus food services are fighting for a shrinking share of the student population. In that context, it seems like jockeying for a similar slice is a losing proposition. But Green Bean has a few other qualities that help it to stand out: Ben and Michelle’s commitment to environment-friendly practices and fostering a community.

“For Michelle and I, doing something that’s as positive, environmentally and socially, as we can is important. So we’ve chosen fair trade organic coffees, our takeout packaging is all biodegradable. There would certainly be businesses in the world that would have a better environmental record than us. We’re serious about what we do and we’re learning how to do it better, and as cost-beneficial as possible.

The simplest question comes down to, is it better to buy organic tomatoes from California, or buy off-the-shelf tomatoes from Leamington?  That’s a whole issue that a lot of people are going to have different opinions on, and we have to educate ourselves as best as we can, and make decisions the best we can, and decisions we can afford to make. It’s well and good to be the most environmentally friendly cafe in the world, but if your prices are so high no one can afford them, you close down and you haven’t done anything for everybody.”

That’s something that doesn’t seem to be in any danger of happening soon. The students are voting with their money: as Ben says, most weeks are their best week ever. It helps that they have a vibrant community filled with people like Astrid, people who identify so much with what Ben and Michelle are doing that they’ve become regulars. Every day, there’s an atmosphere of community that builds as students study alongside working professionals here for meetings with potential clients.

“The atmosphere is really productive,” says Gavin Booth, a 33-year-old local director with Memetic Productions. “If I sat here for five hours, I’d see at least six or seven people I’ve worked with or know as a director. There are more students here than professionals right now, but it’ll open up to more working professionals as word gets around.”

He’s here meeting with Francesco Loschiavo, a 4^th-year business student who’s come into Green Bean for the first time.

“I walked by a few times, but I didn’t come in until I heard about it from Gavin and my professor,” he says. “I’ll definitely come back, though. This Panini is the best thing I’ve had in a while, and you can’t beat this bottomless coffee.”

“Starbucks and Timmy’s are fine,” says Gavin, “But there’s no life. Here there’s a great music selection, not just Christmas music all day. Plus the prices are good.”

Ben and Michelle both work part-time to support Green Bean, to avoid the pressure to make money that Ben says holds back most entrepreneurs from reinvesting in their business. Where do they see Green Bean going from here?

“I’m looking forward to where, on many levels, Green Bean is a sustainable business. Emotionally, energy-wise, physically, financially, environmentally and socially… moving to a place where it’s sustainable.”

Is there a place for a green, progressive cafe with personality on Windsor’s university campus? Only time will tell, but for now the Green Bean has some solid roots.

This is exactly the case of three Windsor men who started their own business, “Back-Yard Bat Co.”. It is a hand turned bat business that offers customized baseball bats turned right in their own backyard.
Joseph LaMantia Sr. turned his very own baseball bat in his back yard shed at the age of 79. It was always a dream to turn a bat of his own.

The dream continued with his grandson Paul LaMantia. At the age of 21, he has taken the inspiration of his grandpa and turned it into something real. “I needed a way to make money while still living the dream of playing ball” says the young man.

Since the time Paul was a little boy, he played baseball and loved every minute of it. When it came time for him to go to University and get himself an education, the question of money became an issue. With some help from a baseball scholarship, a job would be needed for him to pay for the rest of school. Unfortunately, in order to play baseball as much as he does in University, there was no job flexible enough for his long hours. This is where the inspiration of his grandpa came to play a big part of his life.

In 2005 “Back-Yard Bats” came to life. “This company has got me through the tough times and has become a passion” says Paul. The company has allowed him to live his dream of playing ball while making money to go to school on the side. He turns the bats on his own time when he comes home from Wayne State on the weekends and when he is not playing baseball.

The dream however would not have been possible if it weren’t for his father, John LaMantia. Dealing with the struggles of the recession himself, he had to find a way to get his son an education, keep him playing baseball, and somehow still bring the money in.

John gave his son the opportunity of creating this small business by building a shed in his backyard, supplying the lathe to turn the bats on, and creating a website to promote the sales.

The idea behind the business, John says, is affordable pricing on quality products. He says, “You can’t compete with mass production, you can only give an alternative at a better price”. “Back Yard Bat Co” sells their bats anywhere from $55.00 for a standard bat made from ash, to $60.00 dollars for maple, and $65.00 for a custom made bat. When this is compared to a Louisville Slugger maple bat at the cost of $129.99, the price difference is immense. They use the same type of wood, at a cheaper cost. In the days of the recession, people are trying to stay away from the big productions and expensive products in order to save a few dollars. The small businesses and cheaper costs are what people are attracted to. When people find a cheap costing item that still has the quality, they come back for more.

This is the mindset behind the LaMantia boy’s company and it seems to be working for them. On Saturday, the father and son team stood up in front two local baseball teams on Huron Church Road in Windsor and promoted their business and their bats. At 12:15 on Sunday afternoon the next day, the phone rang with a buyer from the day before. From the early days of the business to the days of recession, the number of people looking to buy bats has increased.

“This is what people are looking for, this is what people need” says Paul after he got the call, “Our business is booming!” People from all over town are coming to the business, looking for a quality product at a more reasonable price. According to John, “People are just trying to save every dollar, so their looking for a cheaper alternative to spending big box store prices”.

As the boys go on talking about their business, they reminisce on how the recession has literally forced them to dream bigger. They say they probably would not have made the company as big as it is today if it were not for money issues due to the recession. Although they always has visions of carrying on Joseph Sr.’s dream, the boys were forced to make it as big as possible, and promote as much as possible in order to make those extra dollars.

Not only has the company allowed Paul to satisfy his dreams of playing ball, and satisfy the market place of baseball bats for other people, it has allowed John to get his son through school when times are rough. “Parents will always be strapped to the necessities of getting their kids through life, and the recession doesn’t make it any easier. This company has just made it a little easier”, says John.

More people are trying to get back to school just to give themselves another option after being forced out of a job. According to Mary Beth LaMantia, the pay roll clerical at St. Clair College, their enrolment is up due to many people retraining for a new opportunity. In the end this could very well lead to new entrepreneurial ideas very much like “Back-Yard Bat Co”.

It is an absolute necessity in the times of the recession to have incoming money and if you can’t do it one way, you must do it another. “Back-Yard Bats” was the deeper dream inside of a vision. It was the answer to the problems of the recession for a young college boy who had a dream to play baseball.

“Maybe it isn’t always a bad thing to be forced to find a new niche in life. Maybe it inspires people to do things they would never do” says Paul.

Alex, on her way to her Father's house.

As you sit in a rickety chair on an uncarpeted floor before a man with his face in his hands, you can’t help but feel an air of melancholy fill the room.

Mr. Denis Duguay, a private man, opens up with his story of his struggles through job loss, searching for answers and more loss.

He stays quiet for awhile after telling about his journey to Calgary to find work and you’re unsure if you can interrupt the silence.

“I just missed them so Goddamned much.”

After only two months Mr. Duguay found it too hard to be away from his family in Windsor.

“I thought I could find some answers out there. But it just wasn’t where I was supposed to be.”

Two years ago he was laid off from the now closed Windsor Tool and Die factory after over 20 years of work.

“After that I had nothing. That’s what I went to school for. It’s what I liked. I planned my career based off that alone.”

“He had a lot of seniority there. He was the first mechanic on his machine. He knew the most out of everyone else at the plant,” says Alexandria Duguay, Denis’ 20 year old daughter.

“I could have been a foreman but I’m not really into that kind of thing. I just want to do my job. Can’t even do that now,” remarks Mr. Duguay.

After an unsuccessful search for work he decided make use of his time off by going back to school.

“St. Claire was offering free courses for people who have been laid off. You could upgrade your skills. But it was just basic training on new equipment, resume building,” recalls Alex.

“A lame attempt at getting back into the workforce,” adds Denis, “but necessary.”

An opportunity came and Denis moved to Calgary to work for an oil company.

“I worked 12 hours shifts. Got up, went to work, came home, slept. It was the life.”

“He didn’t have a car either. So it wasn’t like he could enjoy much of the Alberta atmosphere,” says Alex.

But the real problem was more personal.

“He couldn’t stand being away from his wife and children. And he definitely couldn’t afford to move us all out there and my stepmom didn’t really want to move away from all her family here,” says Alex.

While he was away his wife spent a lot of her time trying to find him a job in Windsor.

“Whether I had a job or not, I was coming home,” maintains Mr. Duguay.

Eventually Denis returned and took on a job making gears for airplanes.

“I was tired of cars anyway. I needed something new.”

Unfortunately the new job wasn’t everything one could have hoped for.

“He came home one night and he looked like he was 80. He’s 45. I was scared,” says Alex.

It turned out that there was a chemical that the aerospace company used that Mr. Duguay was very allergic to.

“It was gross. His skin was extremely dry and had rashes everywhere. We tried medication but it didn’t work. The Doctor was like, ‘Well we have nothing stronger to give you’,” insists Alex.

“It was pretty bad,” recalls Denis, holding up his arms for demonstration. “I went up to my boss and I was like, ‘Yeah…I don’t think I can work here’”.

After that not so pleasant experience, the job search continued.

“About two months ago I found another job. And wouldn’t you know it; I was laid off last week,” remarks Denis, shaking his head.

The recession continues to take its toll on the Duguay family, a family with enough on their plate to worry about.

“I live with my mom and my sister and my dad lives with my stepmom and her two little kids,” says Alex. “With child support, he basically has to provide for two families.”

However, as a result of low wages and continual unemployment, that hasn’t been possible for Mr. Duguay.

“My mom understands that he’s not been able to pay child support. But it has been harder for us,” admits Alex.

“My mom just wants to raise us and give us all she can. But without him working…” says Alex, attempting a half smile.

“When he worked at the factory he was paid 30-40 dollars an hour. His wages have literally been cut in half.”

While Alex’s household still manages to get by with one parent working full time, she knows that her father has it a lot worse.

“I only see my dad every other weekend. I don’t see him everyday to see how hurt and sad he is,” admits Alex, as she turns her face away from me.

“We’ve been struggling. The bills seem to come all too often and I turn into the bad guy when the kids want some new toy or videogame,” says Denis.

“Christmas shopping’s gonna be hell. And not just because of the crowds,” he laughs.

A young girl pokes her head around the corner to see what her stepfather is laughing at. She shies away and disappears.

The atmosphere of melancholy seems to drift away for a moment and is replaced by one of moderate repose.

“You know, for all my depression, I still think that things will be alright. Don’t ask me about Windsor but I know I will make it out of this mess,” says Mr. Duguay.

“I’ve gone though, what, three jobs in under two years? Fourth times the charm, right?”

As you get up and shake his hand, you can tell that it’s been roughened by years of tool and die work. As he turns to leave, his pant leg gets caught on a protruding nail amidst the churned up floorboards.

“Sorry about the floor. Was planning on getting it all re-carpeted but I might need a job for that first.”

A pair of kettle bells. Each weighs over 5kg.

During a recession you can’t always fix your wallet, so some people choose to at least improve their health.

Several fitness centers have opened in the Windsor area have been successful, despite floundering economics.  Rob Santarossa is the owner of PUNCHgym, which opened during the earliest decline, and has seen his own gym thrive.

Santarossa was a partner at a Windsor Tool and Die shop, but didn’t wait for business to pick back up. In 2007, when they lost their largest contractor and realized there wasn’t any work coming in, they decided to shut down and liquidate the company.

“We were fortunate to get out when we did because we still got some value for our equipment. A lot of people aren’t getting any value for theirs now.”  He had some money, was out of a job and looking for a new business to open.

Santarossa recognized the increase in support for small local businesses, and saw potential in opening a gym offering his kettle bell training to southwestern Ontario.  “I knew what this training did for me. I knew that I could stick with it because I did stick with this training program for the first time in my life.  I figured if its affected me like this, it can affect other people like this.”

Santarossa trained for a few years with kettle bells before deciding to open his gym. His training began in late 2006, and by the summer of 2007 he had lost 55lbs. “Friends who hadn’t seen me in that time barely recognized me.”

He owned an empty building next to his Tecumseh home and saw the size as being perfect for this type of small gym. Nearly all of the renovations were completed by Santarossa and a friend.

Santarossa spent a week in Rhode Island learning to run a gym as a trainer and business owner, and bought the license for the PUNCH franchise. The gym opened in late March with small group training, with his focus on building clientele. “I opened up right when the recession started, but I’ve been building my business every month.”

He struggled at first to build enough clientele to make a living. The difficulty stemmed from his general marketing plan, “What they called it was put it in the paper and pray that someone would come.” Few people came, the ads were seen but they didn’t catch enough attention to bring in the customers.

“The old economy is gone,” he warns, “If you want people to come in the door you need to think outside of the box in how you market and present yourself. Even if you offer a great service and have been around for 50 years.”

Santarossa had to change the way he marketed himself.  Instead of general marketing he went into direct marketing. “Before an ad would have just been seen,” he explains. “The biggest thing I did was I got a flyer and distributed it to my local area. I got a much greater response.”

In July of 2009, PUNCHgym started offering a weekend Boot Camp and saw his business boom. “People come in expecting it to be hard, and it is.” The value of the training lies in the small groups and personal attention. “The Boot Camp gives people a chance to learn that very few people have the ability to really challenge themselves on their own.  Each time you come here there’s a trainer and a small group.”

To begin, he offered two payment choices: Paying per class or a year-long contract. Paying over $100 a month for a gym membership may seem excessive during a recession, but the clientele continues to grow. “I could increase my class size, but I refuse to compromise on my service.”

His early membership plan wasn’t popular among regulars. “Most people don’t want to get locked into a long term contract,” he explains. He has since introduced a monthly plan that has become popular with the economic discontent among his members. They weren’t sure that they would have a job six months from signing a contract, and that made people more willing to pay a higher premium for the short-term contracts to account for instability.

Personal health is important among the population during periods of economic instability. Job security worries everyone and increases the stress regarding money and health. “People may be working more hours and having more stress. Employers have to do more with less and that falls onto someone,” Santarossa hypothesizes.

Health awareness has increased across the nation.  “More and more people are looking for the natural remedy, rather than taking pills for 30 years.”  The public is being made aware by the media that the cure for heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure isn’t in a daily dose of medicine.  Rather, simple exercise and diet can prevent many health problems.

Santarossa maintains that the 30 minutes spent each class allows someone to spend their evenings more active, instead of being a couch potato.  The difference in amount of energy is life changing for many of his members.

“It’s great that I’m making money at this, but the fact that we change people’s lives is so great to see.”  He gushes about some of his member testimonials, “I don’t know how to explain it exactly.  It’s like delivering a baby. It’s a great feeling to help people like that.”

Losing his job in Tool and Die started as a depressing reality, but morphed into a fulfilling career. He looks back on his old job and chuckles, “Neither job did people like to see me coming.  I was the accountant at the other job, and I’m the trainer here.”

Inside PUNCHgym.

“Money.” One of the reasons why Quan Long came to Canada. The other? “Didn’t like communism.”

“Hush!” says his wife, Dehn. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true! Why should we care? What can they do? In this country, we can say whatever we want.”

Sitting in his kitchen/dining room/living room, Quan, age 51, prefers his life in Windsor over Hong Kong. However, there is still an issue that causes headaches: Quan, like many other former tool and mould workers, is trapped in the unemployment limbo, being either on-call or jobless.

“I’ve been working on-off at Three Stars Mold Finishing since 2008,” Quan speaks in Cantonese and points at the factory’s business card’s list of specialties. “I don’t know what you call it in English but I do all of it.”

Immigrating directly to Windsor in 1996 to escape the Handover of Hong Kong to China, Quan started as an assistant at a bakery. “It was a place that used to be next to Fortune Oriental Market. Lots of heavy lifting. Did that for two days.”

His next job at Candid Mold Finishing was more fruitful, as he worked there for nine years before being laid off in 2006. Immediately, Quan bounced from occupation to occupation: two months of mushroom picking, two and a half months at Avalanche Plastics, a week at Klinec Electric Services, and finally finding slightly steadier ground to rest at Three Stars.

“Back in ’96, it was easy to find a job,” says Quan. “You could pick them. Now they pick you.”

Meanwhile, David Ly, age 56, is unshaken at Gilder Guard.

“I’m a leader of a work shift over there,” he says. “Been around since 1982…younger people got laid off but I’m still here.”

Unlike Quan, David, working in tool and die, arrived in 1979 as part of the automotive boom.

“When I was young, I learned automotive work from my father, in Vietnam,” David explains, lounging on a leather sofa in his basement with a 62” high-definition television as a centerpiece.

“I had skills, so the government brought me here. Stayed a little while in Toronto and Markham as a welder…it was very tough, so I quit,” he chuckles. “Then I did Metro Tool and Die. Didn’t like it there; pay wasn’t much. I needed more money to sponsor my parents over.”

But Gilder Guard is not immune to the economic downturn.

“Things are starting to get better but nobody really knows. Even my boss, he can’t promise anything,” says David in accented English. “Last year, there was competition from China. Lost people; they left to work there because China looks to be the strongest country around. See, companies, they spend millions on R&D. China doesn’t have to. They just copy. Once you have a product, China will take it, make it cheaper.”

“Course companies will go to China,” agrees Quan. “Here companies have to pay benefits and take care of their workers. China has nothing like that.”

“The quality may be lower but they work for a quarter of what they pay us,” David shrugs. “It’s the choice companies will have to make.”

“Even in Windsor, workplaces are being more crooked,” says Quan. “I’ve heard places cutting off health benefits…and at Avalanche, the reason why they hire you for only two and a half months is because if you work for three, you get full-time and benefits.”

Quan would know all about benefits; in 2005, he was injured at Candid Mold.

“They threw a hook, one for trucks, across the floor. They didn’t see me…and they weren’t supposed to do that…I was hit in the head.”

Although getting worker’s compensation wasn’t a problem, it was Quan’s initial experience with Ontario bureaucracy.

“2006 was when I declared unemployment, first time ever,” Quan recalls. “Had to fill out forms all the time. Getting it was easy but I needed help from neighbours as interpreters.”

Without access to the Internet or proficiency in English, Quan relied on family and friends to update his Employment Insurance claims.

“Government aid helped,” Quan says wistfully, “But we could have gotten more if we knew more English.”

That language barrier is a high hurdle to clear, Quan gripes.

“Us workers, we’ll know what to do, but the factories still have an interpreter to make it so if anything goes wrong, it’s our fault,” he sighs. “If you’re Chinese, you’ll need to speak English to get work. Otherwise you need a lot of good references.”

“New immigrants have it rough,” says David. “Don’t matter if you worked for years; new trade workers and graduates just keep coming. You need certificates now. And even for graduates, once you get out there, you think you can make $20 an hour? No way. Windsor? It’s a bad idea.”

Eric, one of David’s sons, comes down and turns on his Playstation 3.

“At Gilder Guard, we used to have overtime; $30 an hour,” David continues. “But this year, from January to July, we only worked four days a week.”

“I know people smarter than me,” Quan says. “They know English but they can’t get work. Their old salaries were $30 an hour…so no one will hire them. At Candid Mold? If your salary was $19 or above, they wouldn’t hire you.”

Joshua, Quan’s nine-year-old son, an only child, interjects and his parents wave him away for mishearing the conversation.

“Right now, I make $16 an hour,” resumes Quan. “Three Stars only has a few people working. There’s this one factory, behind Avalanche, that’s open seven days a week. But if they’re busy, on weekends they’ll send out work to get out of paying overtime. That’s how it goes: when the white people are busy, we get subcontracted. And no one there will ever recommend us to work there because they’re afraid we’ll steal their jobs since we work so fast.”

Eric, David Ly’s son and graduate from the University of Windsor, plays “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” in their recreation room.

But regardless of each other’s financial standings, both David and Quan share a common goal: their children.

“I have no control over their futures,” David laughs, referring to his three sons, one currently enrolled at the University of Windsor, and two of which have already graduated from there as well and are taking further studies. “I can’t tell them, ‘Oh, go into pharmacy’. Doesn’t matter to me what they do as long as they want to do it. I’ll keep paying.”

“Spending is tight but we’re saving up. Better to use a pen instead of hands to make a living, right?” says Quan, glancing at his only child. “He says he wants to be a teacher. Says he won’t be a doctor because he’ll have to cut people up. Won’t be a cop because he’d have to chase down crooks. So he thinks a teacher’s a safe choice.”

If future contains anything troubling, both Quan and David remain unperturbed.

“Would I move from Windsor? No point; it’s like this all over Canada,” Quan shakes his head. “If Three Stars doesn’t work out, I’ll find another. Anything, any job. Besides, Joshua grew up here.”

“There are the holidays and all that spending,” smiles David. “But on Boxing Day, the wife’s the boss, not me.”

Reporters: Alyssa and Melennie. Video by Matt Pellizzari.

Photography by Matt Pellizzari.