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20 in Brampton win $22M lottery
Brampton factory workers earn modest wages as machine operators, assemblers
Dec. 5, 2006. 06:51 AM
JOHN GODDARD
STAFF REPORTER


A group of Brampton factory workers won't wait for Boxing Day sales this year.

Twenty employees of Specialty Building Products Ltd. said they'll start shopping right away after claiming a $22 million Lotto Super 7 jackpot yesterday.

"I've seen this on TV and now I'm here," said an incredulous Kuldip Grewal, holding up one end of a giant cheque as the 20 new millionaires stood for pictures at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s downtown Toronto prize centre.

"First, buy a big-screen TV," Richard Poku of Toronto said of his choice.

"A car," said Muhammad Shahid of Brampton. "Two cars — one for my wife."

"This girl is single," said somebody at the back. "She's shopping for a husband."

Specialty Building Products makes decorative doors and windows.

Some employees began buying tickets six weeks ago. More joined the group each subsequent week.

In last Friday's draw, they won a total of $22,138,375, to be split equally.

The winners said they are among 160 workers at the plant, earning an average of $24,000 a year. Most, in their 30s or 40s, work as assemblers and machine operators.

Speaking for the group of 14 women and six men, Chandrawattie Sukhu of Brampton said they chose the winning numbers by "quick pick," in which a machine picks numbers randomly.

On Friday, she checked the ticket against the winning numbers and, bit by bit over the weekend, tried to notify her co-workers.

"I found out when I came back from temple yesterday (Sunday) at 3:30," said Amarwattie Jagroop of Brampton.

"Some of us only found out this morning."

All 20 were at work yesterday but promptly booked off to collect their prize. All said they planned to return today, but all but six say they'll be giving notice.

"I'm staying," said spokesperson Sukhu, a glass machine operator who is married with two children, 21 and 12. "I've been working there 13 years and I like what I do." She also intends to buy a car.

The group members said they plan to keep buying tickets together, in hopes of repeating their luck.

None were bothered by recent allegations of corruption in the lottery system.

In October, Queen's Park ordered a probe of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s security measures after findings that an astonishing number of retailers have won prizes of $50,000 or more since 1999.

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"