Mega Manufacturer Caterpillar Locks Out Workers To Force Pay Cuts While Making Record

[ktlight]

FYI:
"Yesterday, ThinkProgress’ Tanya Somanader noted that Apple Inc. is breaking its profit record and sitting on nearly $100 billion in cash, while its Chinese laborers toil in unsafe and even deadly conditions. Here on the other side of the Atlantic, another huge company has decided to lock out its Canadian workers in an attempt to force them to accept pay cuts, even as it pulls in its own record profits:

Caterpillar reported a 36 per cent increase in after-tax profit for both the fourth quarter of 2011 and the full year 2011. Revenues for the year increased four per cent to $2.65 billion.

Despite the record profits, the company is pressuring its employees at the London [Ontario] locomotive plant to accept a pay cut from $32 per hour to $16.50. Caterpillar locked out the workers on Jan. 1 after union members rejected the pay cut.

While certainly not in the same league with Apple’s abuses, Caterpillar is just the latest company attempting to force workers to accept wage cuts at the same time its hauling in huge profits and paying its CEO millions. AT&T, Navistar, John Deere, and Wellpoint have all pulled the same trick in the last few years, laying off hundreds of workers.

Caterpillar’s CEO, Doug Oberhelman, made $10.5 million in 2010.

“This is all about greed,” says Bob Scott, union chairman at the plant. “How are workers supposed to go back to earning wages last paid nearly 25 years ago, while the company is richer than ever?” CEOs today make about 343 times the amount earned by the typical worker."

source
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/27/413174/caterpillar-lockout-record-profits/?mobile=nc

[crested-duck]

I hate greedy scumbags that run companies and s##t on employees !

[kcbc2010]

Not sure this gives the whole picture of what's going on at Caterpillar.

This article from the NYT gives a bit more information http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/business/workers-locked-out-at-caterpillar-locomotive-plant-in-canada.html

It isn't until the next to last paragraph when we find out:
"...the cost of wages and benefits for its workers in Illinois, who are represented by the United Automobile Workers, is about half that for the London plant."

In the last paragraph, we find out that "...the Canadian factory “also has antiquated work rules that make the London operation inefficient.”
There was also this tidbit, which also goes to motives:

"...the company may also want to end Canadian production to avoid potential problems with “Buy American” provisions of United States government procurement rules. While the United States government has said that Canada is exempt from any such measures, labor leaders say that has not always been the case in practice."

So, it sounds like there are some legitimate concerns which the company needs to address. It's not always "us vs them."

[grannyfranny100]

Add Cooper Tires to your list of locked out employees. These folks at the Findlay, OH plant took a $33 Million hit in 2008 to help the company. Now that the company is profitable and the CEO is making $14.7 million a year, the company locked them out and refused to continue negotiations during the holiday season. In the past, the union workers kept working while negotiations continued. They weren't even given that option as the company brought in scabs. Even the grand daughters of the company founder who live in CA wrote the CEO to no avail. If you read their corporate website, they sound like corporate angels but the current top management is an embarrassment to the community and demonstrates the heartlessness of many large companies. Thought you might want to know if you are planning to buy new tires.....

[WhiteFeather]

Corporate Condomns Indeed, Karma is a bitch. I say no more.

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I hate greedy scumbags that run companies and s##t on employees !
Ditto! Crested Duck

[schneider]

i won't be buying cooper tires any more and that is the only tire i have ever bought for my truck. these multi natonal companies like caterpillar are so wealthy and they don't have a lot of competition, maybe deere and joy global. i hope occupy wall street is in full force this spring.

[WyoSeeker]

Here's what gets me... I've been a corporate executive, sat around mahogany conference tables and enjoyed the gold plated fixtures in the executive washroom. It was a real shock to me when I saw the vast difference between life in the trenches and life at the top. These people feel they have every right to million dollar compensation packages and all the trappings that go along with it. They will vote themselves bonuses and stock option packages while in the same meeting cut benefits and lay off workers. The concept is known as "velvet handcuffs", and the idea is we need to give the CEO so much money and so many perks they'll never want to leave. Even when they screw it all up and get fired they leave with huge paydays. To them there is no moral dilemma here. They feel they "deserve" that money, and half the time cutting the workforce and shaving expenses is the reason that guy got hired in the first place. Just business as usual.