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| Caterpillar Strikes Deal to Build Georgia Plant | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 18 2012, 08:31 PM (1,539 Views) | |
| Stoney | Feb 18 2012, 08:31 PM Post #1 |
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Wall Street Journal 1400 jobs coming back. |
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| Thumper | Feb 18 2012, 10:19 PM Post #2 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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Union plant? |
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| Deleted User | Feb 18 2012, 10:22 PM Post #3 |
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They did it so they can pay cheap wages. Its a similar story in Ontario where they demanded workers in Canada take over a 50% pay cut in order for them to stay there. Who is going to take 50% cut in pay? The company indulges in union busting. So they go to one of the increasing number of right to work states, which by the way, lower the living standards for everyone from the bottom on up. LINK Good Corporate Citizen? Hardly The bitter labour dispute at a London locomotive company has come to a sadly predictable end. The company’s owner, U.S. giant Caterpillar, closed the plant on Friday, throwing its 465 employees permanently out of work. That’s what Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), which represented the workers, warned would happen. The union had no bargaining power against an employer that refused to negotiate. The Ontario government was equally helpless. Caterpillar pulled the plug just three days after Premier Dalton McGuinty went to London and called on the company to “come to the table and demonstrate some flexibility.” Caterpillar locked out workers at its London plant, Electro-Motive Canada, on New Year’s Day after they rejected its take-it-or-leave-it demand to cut their wages by 50 per cent. It was clear from the beginning that this was not a normal work stoppage. The company would not talk, wouldn’t budge, wouldn’t bargain. The community rallied behind the workers. Caterpillar shrugged. The premier denounced the company for “not meeting Ontario’s legitimate expectations.” He might as well have scolded a stone. The finger-pointing has already begun. The CAW’s critics accuse it of weakness. The company’s critics accuse it of greed and even immorality. McGuinty’s critics accuse him of failing to bring the two sides together. None of this will save jobs or prevent foreign multinationals from hollowing out the Canadian heartland. The labour movement, weakened by dwindling membership and globalization, can’t stop these raiders. Nor can the province. Its laws are designed to facilitate traditional bargaining. That leaves only Ottawa. Prime Minister Stephen Harper could have demanded job guarantees when his government approved the sale of the London company (then known as Progress Rail) to Caterpillar in 2010. He could have stipulated that Canadian money stays in Canada when he gave the locomotive manufacturer a substantial tax break in 2008. He could have mounted a more vigorous defence to the U.S. government’s “Buy America” policy, which has the potential to suck thousands more jobs out of Canada. He did none of these things. His challenge now is to make this sorry episode a lesson, not a precedent. |
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| Deleted User | Feb 18 2012, 10:29 PM Post #4 |
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BTW I think the last few paragraphs in the story tell it all. This is a company that will move on a dime to save a buck. How long those jobs stay in Georgia is debatable. It demonstrates how governments need to put controls on these guys to make sure they don't simply move jobs around in a globalized world. While this particular instance may benefit the US, it is one of many similar ones that does not. Internally you saw the same thing happen with Boeing. That one is more disturbing, paying cheap wages often does not equate to quality. |
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| jackd | Feb 18 2012, 10:36 PM Post #5 |
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I wonder if harper's position had been the same if Carterpillar had been an oil company......... |
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| Brewster | Feb 18 2012, 10:42 PM Post #6 |
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Based on Caterpillar's past record, their move to a state where they don't have to worry about union rights, meaning they're able to fire on a whim, where they can pay the lowest wages possible, and considering they're likely to dump their employees and move as soon as they find a better deal, I'd say it's Ontario'a gain and Georgia's loss. Edited by Brewster, Feb 18 2012, 10:44 PM.
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| Deleted User | Feb 18 2012, 10:44 PM Post #7 |
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I suppose that is one way of looking at it and it was only 500 jobs. This does not appear to be a case of union excess, it appears to be a case of bad corporate practices. |
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| Chris | Feb 18 2012, 10:50 PM Post #8 |
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Some of the liberal arguments here are funny, as if moving to where Cat saves on costs is stupid or evil, and some even twist a job loss into a gain and a job gain into a loss. Companies stay in business by eliminating inefficiencies in order to better compete. That keeps them open. And guess what, that results in jobs and the savings gets passed off to customers in lower prices. |
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| Thumper | Feb 18 2012, 10:54 PM Post #9 |
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Remember, market forces will keep Big Business on the up and up. Libertopia 101. |
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| Mike | Feb 18 2012, 11:03 PM Post #10 |
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The experience in the aircraft business has not been a reduction of wages by 50%, when a company opens plants in a right to work state. Nor has is been that way in the automobile manufacturing sector. I believe most company opposition arrives when blue collar workers, insist on having a say in management areas, long considered sacred to the company. Work rules and retention rules have resulted in a loss of jobs in this country. I believe American workers for the most part, realize that tough bargaining in some areas is a losing proposition long term. It's wonderful that Caterpillar is giving us a second chance. One only review what has happened in the rust belt... and especially the auto industry to grasp what happens when companies are backed up against the wall. |
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