On Jan 1, 2012, in the town of London, Ontario, 465 workers were locked out of their jobs. Employees in a diesel locomotive plant that had existed for nearly 60 years. Lockout:, the new favorite tool/weapon of corporate raiders wielding corporate greed. LOCKED OUT! In a town of fewer than 4,000 residents, this would be significant. Was it without warning? No. Did that make it any easier? No. So, what exactly happened ? Let’s have a look…
In June of 2010, Caterpillar, Inc bought Electro-Motive Diesel. It wasn’t really that simple, either. Progress Rail Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, Inc, purchased Illinois-based EMD from Berkshire Partners LLC and Greenbriar Equity Group LLC. You see, the trail is starting to get muddied already. The price tag was $820 million for the company which had 2009 revenues of $1.8 billion. It is still a matter of discussion whether or not EMD in its London, Ontario facility had benefitted (to the tune of $5mil) from 2008 manufacturing tax measures from the Canadian government. It is hard to imagine that Caterpillar or Progress Rail execs and “white hats” didn’t play nice and take advantage of corporate “pull” with government officials when coming into London. Companies always do.
Workers at the plant, highly skilled in welding and building heavy locomotives, were well paid. They had been living pretty well for years. These workers were organized and represented by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 27. Most earned about $35/hour. Throughout the negotiating process the company demanded concessions; it wanted to cut $18.50 off the $35-an-hour wage for over half the workforce, eliminate cost-of-living increases, retiree benefits, and the defined-benefit pension plan, and hike drug insurance costs. Somehow, their U.S.-based “parent” company had become owned by a private equity firms. The product of such companies is often blood and deprivation, hence the term “vulture capitalists.”
Caterpillar had done fairly well in its own right. The company posted a record profit of $4.9 billion for 2011, in the third quarter, Caterpillar posted profits of close to $15mil per day, a 44% increase over the previous year. In December the company forecast sales for fiscal 2012 would rise as much as 20 percent. Douglas R. Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO, age 57, is connected to 58 board members in 4 different organizations across 10 different industries, and had a total calculated compensation of $10,550,300 for FY2010 – according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Would there be any satisfying the corporate beast?
These workers had treated the Occupy London Ontario group well, and when times got bad, the Occupy folks stood in Solidarity with the workers as well. They helped organize rallies and form a Facebook “SOLIDARITY” page. The CAW acted swiftly and was supported by the London and District Labour Council and the Ontario Federation of Labour. On January 10, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, NDP MP Irene Mathyssen and NDP MPP Teresa Armstrong were down on the picket line. On January 21, a rally attracting more than 15,000 supporters was held at Victoria Park, site of the Occupy London Ont. The crowds then moved on to the Electromotive picket line where the police were forced to shut down Oxford Street.
On January 25, 2012, an engine from the ElectroMotive plant was barricaded on a siding in Ingersoll, Ontario by CAW Local 88 members. Over 100 supporters came out to prevent the movement of the vehicle which was scheduled to be painted and delivered to Brazil. The barricade ended February 1. On January 31, the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty visited the London Chamber of Commerce. During a speech and in interviews afterward, he invited EMD to return to the bargaining table with CAW Local 27. On February 3, 2012, the entire bargaining unit is fired by ElectroMotive Canada. CAW leaders announced that the first meeting for severance package bargaining was to begin on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Workers considered “Occupying” the factory until they received a ‘fair and just’ compensation package.
On February 6, Caterpillar announced the “closing” of the plant. They had engaged in a practice called whip-sawing with CAW members at EMD, by playing them against potential and alleged workers at a plant in Muncie, Indiana. Obviously, Caterpillar can hire workers in Muncie. The question is if they can hire the skilled labor that can build sellable, durable, functional locomotives for the wages they wish to pay. Time will tell. American manufacturing is returning to America via a huge multi-national corporation. All I can say is,”RATS!”
The return of such “heavy industry” jobs is surely a welcome sight to folks in Muncie, but….at what cost? As mentioned earlier, the “Lock-out” has become a favorite tactic of greedy corporations. It is union-busting, pure and simple. In 4 locations across the Upper Great Plains – in Minnesota and North Dakota, American Crystal Sugar is“increasing corporate profits at the cost of workers’ towns and families. In Findlay,OH, Cooper Tire has locked out 1300 USW/ United Steel Workers members, who now stand and watch as scabs go to work daily. A hundred years ago, owners used scabs and “private security firms”. Today we have scabs (they may claim to be in need, but they are undercutting a good standard of living) and entire “logistics and staffing” companies that travel around the country helping companies that wish to break a union.
I can’t help but wonder if the February 1 legislation in Indiana that made it America’s 23rd “Right-to-Work” state had anything to do with the situation in Muncie? These are the “elephants”. Remember, the “Right-to-Work” is what the Israelites had in Egypt! Stop it wherever it rears its ugly head!
reference and suggested reading links :
http://readersupportednews.org/...
http://world.einnews.com/...
http://www.bcfederationist.com/...
http://rabble.ca/...
http://www.thestar.com/...
http://labornotes.org/...
http://www.capebretonpost.com/...
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
http://investing.businessweek.com/...
https://www.facebook.com/...