Caterpillar closing part of a coordinated attack on unions

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1125920--walkom-caterpillar-closing-part-of-a-coordinated-attack-on-unions?bn=1

The timing of Caterpillar Inc.’s decision to close its locked-out London locomotive plant was no accident.

On Wednesday, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a so-called right-to-work bill making his state the first in the U.S. industrial north to directly take on private-sector unions.

Two days later, Caterpillar — which is based in next-door Illinois — closed its unionized London plant.

Since it locked out 460 Canadian workers in January, the giant U.S. firm had made little secret of its intent to move their jobs to Muncie, Indiana.

All it was waiting for, apparently, was a signal that the state government there was serious about crippling trade unions.

The London plant closing is not an isolated event. It is part of a coordinated attack across North America on unions and wages.

The fight against "right-to-work" laws is a fight against the 1%. Caterpillar is claiming that the higher wages in Canada are forcing it to move. This isn't true.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/ofl-president-harper-sits-back-while-caterpillar-robber-barons-close-london-plant-move-1615008.htm

OFL President: "Harper Sits Back While Caterpillar Robber Barons Close London Plant and Move Jobs South of the Border"

Electro-Motive Diesel was acquired for $820 million in 2010 by Progress Rail Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. Since then, Caterpillar built up its locomotive manufacturing capacity in Munsie, Indiana, where they have received millions of dollars in state aid and pay their workers nominal wages for skilled labour. Electro-Motive Diesel locked out members of CAW Local 27 in London on New Year's Day, after demanding dramatic concessions to wages and benefits, including a 50 percent cut that would drop wages for some workers from $35 to $16.50 an hour. While the company has attempted to blame Canadian workers and an "unsustainable cost structure" for its decision to relocate, this move comes in a year in which production was up by 20 percent and Caterpillar boasted a $4.9 billion profit, the highest in its 86-year history.

[rurallib]

1. Caterpillar has plants in Indiana IIRC

Lafayette?

[iverglas]

2. you'll excuse the bitterness here

but thanks a lot, neighbours.

This is not unique in the fallout of NAFTA for Canada. We have lost entire industries (carpet, furniture) to "right-to-work" states in the US.

Interesting how that never gets mentioned around here or in the US generally ... how they aren't just "your" jobs getting exported to cheap-labour jurisdictions. You, the United States, are the cheap labour jurisdiction, from our perspective. And you have gained (if you call that gaining ...) by our losses.

London, Ont., is my home town. It's about halfway between Toronto and Detroit. I grew up there in the 50s and 60s, when it was (and pretty much still is) the whitest-bread small city in Canada. Its reputation is for conservative politics and a white-collar economy, but in fact it has its progressive moments (we elected a social democrat mayor just before I left, e.g.) and its working-class history. I'm from the literal wrong side of the tracks, so I know a bit about that.

My grandfather, who'd had to go to work in a factory at 13, was a union man all his life, through the Depression and the fight for the 40-hour week and all that. For about his last 20 working years, he had one of those good secure 1950s-60s-type jobs at a plant up until he retired around 1965. If you have any old board games or jigsaw puzzles at home, they may have been printed at Somerville and my grandfather may have been the "colour man".

Some years later, one of my hippy-est friends from undergraduate days became the president of the labour council in London, and unions have been active in the community. So despite its Tory rep, London has been a good place for working people. Not so much these days.


The US corporation that was allowed to buy out Electro-Motive had demanded a 50% wage cut from the union. We don't call that bargaining in good faith up here.

Keep in mind that employers here do not bargain health insurance with unionized employees, for instance, and that employees here are entitled to employment-insurance benefits for maternity and parental and other forms of leave, so Canadian workers are actually cheaper in some regards than US workers -- assuming that US workers aren't accepting work at minimum wage, of course. (Although even for non-union workers, we do have laws requiring paid vacation and notice and similar ciivilized notions).


Here's the other fun part for Canadians.

The right-wing Harper government had granted these corporate scum serious tax concessions that we have all paid for, and that Caterpillar is taking south with it to "Indiana, where they have received millions of dollars in state aid and pay their workers nominal wages for skilled labour".

http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/327156--opposition-mps-calling-on-caterpillar-to-refund-tax-breaks-after-closing-london-ont-plant

Opposition MPs calling on Caterpillar to refund tax breaks after closing London, Ont. plant
680News staff Feb 04, 2012 09:13:34 AM

Opposition MPs are placing calls to the Harper government asking them to demand that Caterpillar returns the millions of dollars of incentives and tax breaks it received from Ottawa.

So thank you for posting this; it's something people in the US need to give a little thought to.

And again, I hope I will be forgiven if I say: fuck you, Indiana. But big congratulations on winning this leg of the race to the bottom.

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Yeah, I noticed that part to about the government tax breaks.......

to these capitalists. And most of the time there's no way they're required to "pay it back". It's just another way that the POLITICAL system supports the ECONOMIC system of capitalism. It's TOTALLY fucked. That's why I don't much believe in "electoral" remedies for the problems of the 99%.

[TBF]

4. "Totally fucked" about sums it up.

And it's not just Canada that is losing those jobs - I saw Wisconsin lose them in the 80s. US States that were strong union states have taken quite a beating since Reagan took office. They will not stop until every state is "right to work". And it is especially discouraging to hear anti-union propaganda from the very people the unions could help so much - low income/info folks.