A Statement from Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and London area MPP Teresa Armstrong on the closure of the Caterpillar plant
February 3 – London families, and all Ontarians, are shocked and dismayed by the announcement that Caterpillar International will shutter London’s Electro-Motive plant and put 465 highly skilled workers out in the cold.
One of the signs held up at a huge rally against the Caterpillar Corporation this January attended in London, Ontario by Niagara residents and close to 15,000 others across the province. Photo courtesy of Tori Crispo.
This is devastating news for those workers and an entire community that’s seen good jobs vanish, plants close and unemployment levels that are simply too high.
More than ever it’s clear we need new ideas and a new approach if we’re going to create and maintain good jobs in Ontario. Ontario’s across-the-board corporate tax giveaways reward companies like Caterpillar (that are) making record profits, even while they ship jobs and investment out of Ontario.
We need to reward the real job creators with tax incentives for companies that create jobs, train their workers and make investments. We need Buy Ontario polices to ensure that public money stays in Ontario and goes to protect and create good jobs.
Today, it’s time to think of the 465 workers who have lost their jobs in London and to make sure that all due severances are paid and that families are looked after during this difficult time.
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My sentiments exactly.
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I can tell you this much — If I had many dollars invested in Caterpillar and I could see from the balance sheets that the plant in London was losing money and was beyond becoming profitable under conditions that could not be overcome I as a stockholder would insist on cutting the losses as it would be affecting the income in my retirement portfolio. Because Caterpillar is making HUGE HUGE Profits in other areas is no justification for keeping a losing entity – We are not nor will we ever be privy to the details of this individual plants financial status so drawing conclusions without information is pointless – Corporations rarely close plants that are satisfactorily profitable and I am sure there is not one of you that would put their money into an unprofitable business – would you ????
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William, the only way to “compete” would be to sell out our Canadian values, embrace poverty, and work for next to nothing. It’s a race to the bottom. Ultimately it means competing with totalitarian/communist China. We could make computer gadgets at the same cost as the Chinese, but we’d have to sell out our values. Yes,Canada is becoming more totalitarian, especially at the federal level and out west, but we’re not there yet, and I hope we never get there.
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News reports indicate this is a highly profitable US company looking out for their own (in Muncie) who also have an anti union mindset. It’s no wonder they make money. Asking a union to accept a 50% pay cut can’t be considered a good faith offer. This is more about corporate greed and protectionism than anything else. So be it! Before leaving town they should be paying back the $5 million in tax incentives they recieved and provide workers severences above and beyond what is required. Maybe then Caterpillar can be seen at least as a corporate citizen with some semblance of a conscience. Now they are percieved as acting only in “unethical, disrespectful and immoral behaviour.” Not that they seem to care at all!
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Caterpillar has had a ruthless, self-interested reputation for years. They also benefited from Canadian taxpayer-funded R & D at the plant, innovations, trade secrets, manufacturing processes, and on and on.
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Let me make it clear. My dad was a teamster. We share the pain of what is happening to the good people at Cat, which may border on illegal. Slapping around fellow Canadians this way should not go unchallenged.
However, government has no business subsidizing business in the first place. David Lewis coined the term “corporate welfare bums” to describe those businesses motivated to begging for government handouts as a form of blackmail, pre-condition of staying around. In more contemporary times the OWS mantra refers to “cronyism”, decrying government getting in bed with business.
* I should remind all of the cozy little untendered Samsung deal. Like Caterpilar, this can’t end well.
* Most recently Alf Apps, provincial Liberal Party operative has been caught getting $11Million in legal contracts related to the ORNGE helicopter deal from his buddies in the McGuinty clique (Saturday’s TO Star).
* Today’s so called “green” business is less entrepreneurial and more “grantepreneurial”. I’m sure David Lewis would be impressed.
Can’t anyone see the dangers of government directly trying to play at business?
No one should get grants, preferential tax treatment, loop-holes, subsidies, and all the other invitations to cronyism and potential f***d. No one. Period.
The Government is there to create a sustainable business climate, encourage a level playing field for manufacturing and agriculture without picking favorites.They should keep their big clumsy thumb off the scales, and let the better mouse-trap win. Just as business shouldn’t be regulating, government shouldn’t be “businessing”.
Only then would the government be freed of the crony hand-cuffs that prevent them from acting on behalf of the voters that give them legitimacy.
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William, there has been evidence presented that the plant in question was doing very well and producing high quality locomotives.
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Chris, I agree with you … corporate welfare bums, that’s what happens when they keep getting tax breaks and/or handouts of various kinds tied to very little. I was actually thinking of organizing all the business downtown run by independent persons who are least likely to be the beneficiary of these handouts, just our hard work, and show up at the government’s door cup in hand asking them to bail us out as well;-)
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