Caterpillar Rolls Over Workers, Closes Plant
Feb 03, 2012
caterpillar, caw, greed, lockout
Caterpillar has announced that it will soon close its Electro-Motive plant in London Ontario, where locked out employees have been off the job since January 1 of this year.
This is the same Caterpillar facility that hosted Prime Minister Stephen Harper in March of 2008 for his announcement of another round of sweeping corporate tax cuts. This particular plant received some $5 million in tax reduction as a result.
The employees at Caterpillar were locked out after refusing to accept Caterpillar’s demands that they accept wage cuts by as much as 50 percent. The work will apparently be shifted from London to other assembly plants in North and South America, according to the company.
In a brief news statement, Caterpillar claimed that the gulf between its position on how to reduce costs and increase flexibility and the union’s position was too wide, so “market conditions” dictated that the plant be sold.
Not surprisingly, announcement of the closing brought condemnation from Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza. “Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant open,” he said in a statement. “From day one, we believed that Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis by forcing deep cuts that were not possible. Our members would have happily continued working under the previous conditions, but that wasn’t enough for this incredibly profitable company.”
It’s hard to disagree with the union’s sentiment. Some 400 CAW members are now without a job. This comes barely more than a week after Caterpillar reported record revenue of over $60 billion US and a profit surge of an amazing 83 percent to almost $5 billion, results it bragged that it had not seen since the days of US President Harry Truman in the years immediately after the Second World War.
If all of this doesn’t seem awful enough, all indications are that Caterpillar employees found out from the media that they’d lost their jobs. The company didn’t even have the basic decency to let them know first.
This story really couldn’t be much worse. If one ever needs an example of pure, unfettered greed, they need look no further than Caterpillar.
Comments
Comments are now closed
Proof once again that corporate tax cuts don't create jobs.
Jeremy - 2012-02-03 20:21
There is absolutely no evidence that tax cuts create jobs or help the economy. They benefit corporate Canada, who's CEO's use their increased profits to pad their own pockets, but only hurt the rest of Canadians.
Bill - 2012-02-14 08:48