Headlines from this weeks SPEC

May 5, 2002

The Last Casting of Copper
Gilles Gagne

MURDOCHVILLE - The last casting of copper at Fonderie Gaspe smelter took place on Saturday, April 27, in Murdochville, three days before it was originally planned. Noranda Incorporated had announced in March that the permanent closure of the town's only industry would take place on the last day of April..

Only the employees of Fonderie Gaspe were admitted at the last casting, but SPEC was present when the next-to-last casting was done, on Friday night, along with a small crew of two film producers.

Frustration was evident among Fonderie Gaspe's 300 employees, who are angry at the company. They feel the foundry should have been modernized when it was still time to do it gradually. They say the company abandoned mining exploration much too early. Until 1999, the local mine was supplying the foundry, along with imported copper concentrate.

ACI Telecentrics Recruits 409 Applicants in Three Days
Gilles Gagne

CAPLAN - ACI Telecentrics recruited 409 applicants in three days last week for the 144 jobs available at the call centre currently under renovations in Caplan.

According to Centre local d'emploi, civil servants helping ACI Telecentrics in the recruiting activity, the expected number of applicants was much bigger than 409, but the quality of the manpower compensated for the relatively small number of people who came at the OTJ building. About 90% of the applicants were able to meet the qualifications required by the Minnesota based company.

The quality of the applicants for the supervizing jobs was one of the strong points of the recruiting activity, said Liette Francoeur, spokesperson for the Centre local d'emploi. "In the Gaspe Peninsula and in the Magdalen Islands, we have people well trained for these supervision duties. We realized that", said Mrs. Francoeur.

Women’s Shelter of Gaspé Makes Some Positive Changes
Charlene Eden

L’Aid’Elle, the women’s shelter in Gaspé, is working towards giving better services to Anglophone women in the area. A program has been formed, which enables Anglophone women to attain a number of services at the shelter in English.

The program began as a result of a meeting between L’Aid’Elle director Caroline Boudreau and Susan Hutchinson, an Anglican Priest residing in Gaspé. The two women decided to start a program in which a member of the English community would be reachable at all times, thus ensuring that Anglophone women requiring the services of L’Aid’Elle could speak with someone in their native language.