Locked out Caterpiller workers at the Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario are now unemployed.
They refused a pay cut (a hefty one, I admit) on their $35/hr salaries, the union balked, and Caterpillar locked them out on New Year’s Day. Two weeks ago, an assortment of parasitical union hacks protested at the plant – they were paid $40 each to do so, by the way – and today the word came down that Caterpiller was shutting down operations, likely to move to the US.
So, tell me: Is a heavy pay cut better or worse than unemployment for these workers?
Welcome to the real world, unions!
It could be that Cat wanted this plant closed no matter what. Could it be that a 50% pay cut was necessary to bring costs in line with a plant in Ill.? I do know some (union) plant rates around here (MI) are ~20/hr, although I’m not sure the skills are equivalent of course. I’m pretty anti-union at the best of time, so this seems fine to me. You can’t run a plant with half the workers, so a 50% pay cut for all would have to be the answer if that was the goal.
Cat could probably only keep two plants open if they lowered their cost to be able to compete with other companies that though not as good quality were a lot cheaper. The plant in the US is also union and had better watch out they don’t force the company outside the US. My father worked for a city as their heavy equipment operator. When they needed new equipment, he tried to get them to buy Cats, stating that the equipment would last longer and would pay the difference in longer life. City managers only stay city managers for a few years before they retire with the accolades of ‘look at how much he saved over the years.’ and they went cheap. Stanley Tools had the choice to move their company charter and administration out of the US or their manufacturing plant out. They could not keep up with the US tax schedule otherwise. Manufacturing and the jobs stayed in the US. The government and unions have got to learn to compete or…
Could you manage If your yearly income was halved starting today. …There goes the house, move to a smaller one if you can find a buyer . Possibly pull the kids from school if you are in a new location . The company is not having problems so why? . I worked for Ford in Oakville, The labour costs were about 9% of the price of the vehicles we made , so if we had worked all year for nothing the price of a new car would come down by 9%
Unskilled labour rate was to be cut by nearly 50%($32.00 to $16.00) skilled labour was only asked to cut 10%