CAW Members Victimized in Lockout by Caterpillar's Rail
Division

By Dick Blin
International Federation of Chemical,
Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
January 2, 2012

http://www.icem.org/?id=27&doc=4823&language=en&la=EN&uid=JGVfbWFpbF9kZXN0aW5hdGFpcmVz

Geneva

Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)
union were locked out at the New Year by Caterpillar
Inc.'s Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) in a callous display
of corporate might that could lead to corporate flight
from Canada. The 650 CAW members in London, Ontario,
voted by 98% on 30 December for strike action and 24
hours later - just as they were returning to jobs on
New Year's Eve following a holiday shutdown - they were
locked out.

The lockout indignation comes on the heels of deeper
indignation: Caterpillar's EMD - run as part of the US
company's Progress Rail Services Corp. - attempt to
extract unreasonable wage and benefit concessions from
Canadian union members as excuse to shift production of
electric-powered diesel engines and associated railroad
components to a start-up and lower wage plant in
Muncie, US state of Indiana.

EMD began operations in Muncie in October 2011. Until
Saturday night's lockout, CAW and EMD had bargained
under a seven-month contract extension, something the
two sides agreed to in May 2011. However, EMD never
once wavered from an initial, hostile and family-
wrecking proposal demanding wage cuts from C$35-per
hour to C$16.50, health benefits cut in half, and
elimination of a pension scheme.

At the same time, EMD was advertising for a Human
Resources manager in Muncie with the stipulation that
he/she have "experience with providing union-free
culture and union avoidance."

EMD is paying average salaries between US$12-16-per
hour in Muncie. Caterpillar and its wholly-owned
Progress Rail Services is seeking to dislodge General
Electric's (GE) Transportation Division as the US's
premiere supplier of train locomotives at a time of
government stimulus funding for infrastructure and
transport needs. GE operates three major rail division
plants that are unionised and pay average salaries of
US$30-per hour or more.

EMD's London, Ontario, plant was purchased by
Caterpillar in August 2010 for US$820 million from
Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners. The two
capital companies in turn bought the manufacturing
plant in 2005 for a quarter of that amount from General
Motors when GM was shedding its non-auto making
businesses.

CAW President Ken Lewenza

Then, Caterpillar was interested in buying the
southwestern Ontario plant but CAW opposed the deal
because of Caterpillar's horrid labour relations record
in the US. Now, with Caterpillar in control and
deploying obvious whipsawing of CAW members against
non-union Muncie workers that will number 650 this
year, CAW Local 27 is forced to blockade the London
plant to prevent equipment from leaving for the Indiana
city 350 miles to the south.

On Saturday, CAW President Ken Lewenza called the
lockout "a serious attack on working people, their
families and the greater community of London.

"If (Caterpillar) is not going to do business in
Canada, this wage cut is designed as a mechanism to
blame workers," Lewenza said in a published report,
referring to production flight and a possible plant
closing. In mid-December, the CAW lodged a formal
complaint with the government over Caterpillar's
violation of the Investment Canada Act.

EMD has other railroad manufacturing facilities in Sete
Lagoas, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, and Sahagun,
Hidalgo state, Mexico, a facility it operates jointly
with Bombardier. EMD sells locomotives, replacement
parts, and diesel powered engines for marine
propulsion, oil drilling and power generation in 130
countries, and currently has major contracts with
companies providing equipment for state railways in
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

Caterpillar's deep contract concession proposals, the
lockout, matched with lucrative incentives from
Indiana's anti-union state government for the Muncie
start-up are a cause of great concern, particularly for
two countries that each lack socially-minded industrial
policies in the wake of a financial crisis.

   

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