Doug's story

September 11, 2008

When it came to rebuilding a life, Doug Crew is something of an old hand. So when the factory where he worked closed suddenly, he stepped up to be a role model for his co-workers – and United Way was there to help.

Doug worked for McCormicks, a candy and biscuit maker in London. The pay was good, but workers often spent decades doing jobs with few transferable skills and little upgrading. “I was trying to explain to them to get an education,” Doug recalls.

He understood why from hard experience. As a boy, he had struggled in school. “Back in the days when I was going to school, they didn’t know about ADD (attention deficit disorder),” Doug says. He dropped out in high school and tried to support himself with seasonal jobs. When he was 25, the old Unemployment Insurance program extended his benefits so that he could obtain a high school education.

But lack of education wasn’t Doug’s only problem. He also had drug and alcohol dependencies. It was several more years before he was able to get control over those. Now 51, he’s been “clean and sober” for 12 years, he says proudly.

Doug urged his co-workers to think about their futures. While they respected him enough to make him a leader in their local of the Bakery, Confectioners, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, many scoffed at his warnings because plant closure had been threatened for years and had never happened. Then in 2007, it did – and it came with no severance or vacation pay.

Shortly after the company announcement, Doug’s MPP called him to say the province was willing to put up $150,000 for a resource centre to help the workers find new jobs. United Way would be the banker for the grant and help establish the centre.

The centre helped workers identify their strengths, explore their options and get back into the job market. Doug says 95 per cent of those who used the centre found a job, went back to school or decided to retire. He has found work through a temp agency and runs a DJ business on the side.

“If it wasn’t for United Way acting like that, I don’t know what we would have done,” Doug says.

Strengthening families is one of United Way of London & Middlesex's priorityareas. Learn more.