Two on CAT Closing of Locomotive Plant


CAW Outraged at Closure Announcement at Electro-Motive
in London

February 3, 2012, 11:30 AM EST

http://caw.ca/en/10929.htm

Canadian Auto Workers Union

CAW President Ken Lewenza is expressing his anger and
frustration at what is he calling the "callous move" by
Caterpillar to suddenly close its London Electro-Motive
Diesel plant, announced this morning.

Sadly, the closure doesn't come as a total surprise to
the union.

"Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant
open," said Lewenza.  "From day one, we believed that
Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis, by forcing
deep cuts that were not possible," said Lewenza. "Our
members would have happily continued working under the
previous conditions, but that wasn't enough for this
incredibly profitable company."

Caterpillar locked out approximately 465 workers on
January 1, after tabling a final offer that would cut
wages and benefits in half. Last week, Caterpillar
announced $4.9 billion in annual profits, the highest
in its 86 year history.

Lewenza also pointed the finger at government inaction
in allowing the closure. He said that 465 workers and
another 1,700 workers employed in spin-off jobs are now
the casualties of an outdated and dysfunctional
Investment Canada Act, that attaches no commitment to
Canadian jobs to corporate take-overs.

"The Stephen Harper government is entirely in the
pocket of the corporate elite and has shown absolute
disregard for Canadian workers and their families,"
said Lewenza. "I am disgusted at this government and
its indifference towards the suffering of workers and
the unemployed.  The Harper government was elected by
Canadians, but only seems able to represent
multi-national corporations."

"Even though we predicted that the plant could close,
it's devastating when it actually happens," said CAW
Local 27 President Tim Carrie. "This is truly rotten
behaviour.  Now we're going to do everything that we
can for our members."

CAW Electro-Motive chairperson Bob Scott said that
members learned this morning that the plant would close
- the company gave the union absolutely no advance
notice. "Imagine the shock that our members felt at
hearing about losing their job, on the radio," said
Scott. "It's unbelievable that Caterpillar would string
our members along and lock them out in the cold for six
weeks, when it had no intention of reopening the
plant," said Scott. "This is absolutely sickening
behaviour on the part of this corporation."




Progress Rail closing London plant

By Hank Daniszewski and John Miner, 

The London Free Press

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/emd/2012/02/03/19333691.html

Londoners had a couple of hours on Friday to bask in
the news that city's unemployment rate had dropped last
month.

Then the bad news slammed in like a locomotive.

Electro-Motive Canada announced it was shutting down
its plant, wiping out the jobs of 475 locked out
workers as well as 200 non-union staff.

Sixty-two years after it started making locomotives in
the city and two years after it was purchased by a
subsidiary of heavy equipment giant Caterpillar Inc.
the plant was history.

Company president Billy Ainsworth laid out the reasons
in a statement issued to EMD employees in Illinois.

"All facilities within EMC, Electro-Motive Diesel and
Progress Rail Services must achieve and maintain
competitive costs, quality and operating flexibility to
win in the global marketplace. The London plant,
primarily because of an antiquated labor contract,
faced serious competitive disadvantages."

It's the biggest plant closure the city since 1994 when
the Northern Telecom plant employing 2,200 shut down.

It will likely cause another spike in the London-St.
Thomas unemployment rate which dropped to 9% last
month, but is still the second highest of any major
city in Canada.

The lockout of the London workers had been a lightning
rod for protests with the company asking employees to
take as much as a 50% wage cut. A rally on Jan. 21 drew
more than 5,000 people.

Outrage over the closure started flowing immediately.

Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza said
Caterpillar always intended to close the plant and
defended the union's refusal to give into concessions.

Ken Georgetti, head of the Canadian Labour Congress
called for a seizure of Caterpillar assets in Canada.

Local politicians flocked to the picket lines to show
their support for the workers.

Mayor Joe Fontana said the shutdown was "shameful."

"It's despicable as to how Caterpillar has treated
these employees."

Fontana blasted Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not
intervening but a Harper spokesperson shifted the
blame, saying the federal government was disappointed
"that the Ontario government was unable to mediate a
solution to the dispute."

But after the furor and finger-pointing subsides, EMD
workers will still be out looking for a new job - one
that is unlikely to pay $32 an hour.

Two weeks ago Clint Howard started looking for a
"survival" job to get him through the lockout so he
could make his mortgage and car payments and provide
for his wife and infant daughter.

Now the 34-year old welder said a survival job may be
the best he can do.

"I'll have to take anything I can get basically . . . I
have to put food on the table for my family.'

But he may be better off than Bob Pharand, a 55-year
old EMD veteran who stood grim-faced on the picket line
while his wife wept beside him. He said finding another
job will be tough at his age and closure was a scenario
he tried not to think about.

"You see it, but you don't want to see it," he said.

- with files from Scott Taylor, Ian Gillespie, Norman
De Bono

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