– More Than 450 Ontario Workers Left Out In The Cold
By Mark Taliano
Caterpillar showed its true colors this Friday, February 3 by announcing that it is closing its locomotive plant in London, Ontario.
- CAW members and others from Niagara and other communities across Ontario rally this January in bid to save jobs at Caterpillar plant. Photo courtesy of Tori Crispo
In an all too familiar strategy, Caterpillar locked out its Canadian Auto Workers on January 1, after unreasonable demands, including pay cuts of up to 50 per cent, were rejected.
Many Canadians, including Mr. Ken Lewenza, CAW National President, suspected, from the beginning of the lock-out, that this was the company’s not-so hidden agenda. “Caterpillar,” he says,” had no intention of keeping this plant open.”
Adding insult to injury, the company recently boasted profits of 60 per cent for 2011. This, of course, is little consolation to the workers, their families, or the City OfLondon, which is also reeling from the recent closing of the Ford assembly plant in Talbotford.
This issue speaks to numerous factors which are currently underminingCanadaand her economy. In 2008, prior to the purchase of EMD by Caterpillar in 2010,Canadaoffered corporate tax cuts of at least $5 million dollars to EMD, as well as other incentives. Clearly, it was the wrong decision, and the taxpayers are, once again, left holding the bill. It is also a clear cut example of the truism “privatized profits and public losses”. Huge corporations are interested in profits rather than community welfare, and they will, as Caterpillar has done, exploit a country for market share and technology, and then leave.
Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario Federation Of Labour, recently observed,” Good jobs and retirement are being threatened by greedy corporations and every level of government. If workers don’t start to fight back, decent jobs will become a thing of the past, and the middle class will be decimated.” The middle class is already decimated.
The hollowing out of the middle class is leaving us with a commodity-obsessed (re. tar sands) economy that features an enriched minority and impoverished majority, third world style. This is why American workers joined Canadian workers in solidarity at the massive rally and protest on January 21. They know all too well that it can, and does, happen to them.
Are there lessons to be learned? Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid laid the blame elsewhere. “This is a volatile time in the global economy,” he observed. The all too common tactic of laying the blame elsewhere does nothing to address the problem. A more productive answer would address the issue of corporate tax cuts, especially since the federal Conservatives are planning to reduce the corporate tax rate yet again, from its current low level of 11.5 to 10 per cent, by July 2013.
Caterpillar shareholders may well rejoice in the performance of their stock, and the ruthlessness of their company, but their short-term gains won’t empowerCanada’s manufacturing sector anytime soon. Today’s “gains” may well be tomorrow’s losses.
Mark Taliano is a resident of Niagara, Ontario and a frequent contributor of posts to Niagara At Large.
(Niagara At Large invites you to shared your views on this post in the comment boxes below. NAL only posts comments by people who are willing to share their names with their views)
Niagara At Large 
Lets be fair with Cat until we know all the facts – We are not given the figures for the plant in question and that is what we need to know and wont get – If it is a losing proposition in spite of profits elsewhere and obstacles that can not be overcome I would also close it. The governments who offer incentives to these corporations must tie serious repayment conditions to such incentives. If they don’t Corporations are going to take the money and not worry about it any further.How often are cheques from the government ever turned down ???
LikeLike
We have all the facts. It was a very productive plant.
LikeLike
http://rockinontheblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/are-london-emd-workers-facing-hobsons.html———-a screen shot of what was going on before the actual closure in London,Ont
LikeLike
William, it was a very productive plant and made one of the best locomotives in the world with its skilled workforce. The plant was doing well, was given $6 million in corporate handouts, over a billion in tax breaks, etc. They would not be given tax breaks if they were not profitable, would they? Now let’s move on to how this is helping our economy again.
LikeLike
The media has the facts right. Pls note Doug Draper’s next column, Mr. Snyder, showing OGL siphoning off our tax dollars cheerfuly to this wealthy company. ‘Nuff said.
LikeLike
Train manufacturing is also good for the economy: According to a U.S study (“The Page That Counts” Yes! Magazine) a billion dollars spent on the military yields 8,555 jobs, the same amount on health care yields 10,770 jobs, the same amount on education yields 17,687 jobs, and the same amount spent on mass transit yields 19,795 jobs. It’s an American study, but the numbers are likely relevant. Corporate and government propaganda will argue that pipelines are about jobs, but better, more ethical job numbers are elsewhere.
LikeLike
Our lack of a sense of national identity translates into a “colonial”, disempowering mindset. Fifty percent of our manufacturing is in foreign hands, while the U.S, Japan, Germany, the U.K, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and Sweden have all kept outside ownership of their manufacturing industries to four percent. We are denying our sense of self by being a nation that is “owned” by foreign entities (branch plant economy), rather than by being a nation that “owns” its industries. We need to nationalize our train industry and get a national High Speed Rail program moving.
LikeLike
“Free” trade:
http://www.operationmaple.com/fyi/the-real-cost-of-free-trade
LikeLike