Caterpillar Closes Electro-Motive Plant

One of the big labor issues here in Canada is the U.S.-based Caterpillar corporation locking out workers at its Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario, and threatening to move the factory unless workers took a 50% pay cut.

There was a massive demonstration in London a couple weeks ago. Some of my comrades from Toronto went in solidarity, along with masses of union workers from all over North America. But apparently, it was all for naught: the company just voted to close down the plant.

From the Toronto Star:

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.

So now Indiana is a "right-to-work" state? Bad news for unions in the northern states.

Workers everywhere need to stand firm together against the aggression of the bosses and their servants in government. I agree with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP): the government "should seize the Caterpillar assets in London and ensure that all community and worker obligations are fully met."

Of course, that'll never happen under the Harper regime. But it's still a good sign that the union is advocating such measures.