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Caterpillar reaches deal to close London locomotive plant
NAFTA is a real double-edged sword…
Mexico? What will the new workers make? One or two dollars an hour. Will prices for products drop too?
Why is there no mention of Rail Progress here?They own it and they are just a subsidary of Caterpillar.Cat is known for its bulldozers,motor graders,wheel tractor scrapers,off-highway haulers,articulated dump trucks,skid steer loaders,their diesel engines,motor graders,wheel loaders,paving equipment,crawler loaders,hydraulic excavators and the industries they serve across the globe.
I am disappointed about some of the manufacturing going to Mexico, why not manufacture the items in the USA? We desperatly need manufacturing jobs here.
This is sad news as it ends locomotive construction in Canada. The London plant was profitable but apparently not profitable enough. Indeed, it developed and sold many locos in the UK and Europe in recent years. The real losers in this are the workers who gave their best to EMD. Maybe Bombardier will decide to build locos in canada and atke on GE and EMD
People all felt shortchanged when Eletro-Motive moved most of it’s manufacturing from LaGrange to Canada way back when. Back then it was all about cheaper labor and taxes. Now it’s still about the bottom line. The big shots get rich and the real worker gets the shaft. The three weeks of vacation per year per worker is a drop in the bucket for what Caterpillar is making. Shame on them!!!1
It’s all about the “what have you done for me lately?” stockholder. Sure you made a billion last year,but you should make 1.5 billion this year. This drives companies to do what Cat has done. I’ve seen a business go from being a successful one owned by one guy to having investors. Suddenly, no one’s happy.
good info keep it up. one q. what happen in the three illinois freight train derailment why was the first train stop? thanks
CAT is also building a plant in Brazil to produce locomotives to South American market
Now they are certain they are without a job
At least they have health care. Good luck to 'em.
A sad end to 700 careers in the locomotive construction industry and a sad end to the plant that for quarter of a century was THE birthplace of many fine EMD products. I know that if I were one of the 700 payed off then I would be devastated and distraught. No matter how generous the payoff settlement is it will soon be spent and then what for those people? I wonder indeed how much the Mexican workers will get paid and indeed the workers at the new Muncie plant compared to the erstwhile wages at London.
A sad end to 700 careers in the locomotive construction industry and a sad end to the plant that for quarter of a century was THE birthplace of many fine EMD products. I know that if I were one of the 700 payed off then I would be devastated and distraught. No matter how generous the payoff settlement is it will soon be spent and then what for those people? I wonder indeed how much the Mexican workers will get paid and indeed the workers at the new Muncie plant compared to the erstwhile wages at London.
The really, really baffling part of this whole sordid mess is that the London plant (under its former owners) was the only one in North America to successfully sell locomotives in Europe (the class 66 in the UK and variously others elsewhere).
Funny thing happened when Caterpiller took over: The 66 stopped being bought, while a GM loco turned into an export success instead!
Note that this whole ‘expensive labor’ ploy is an invention - European companies (French and German) dominate international home and export loco and train production with labor costs that are higher than those anywhere in North America.
NAFTA sure does cut both ways. There wasn’t much of a howl when EMD moved all the production to Canada and tore down the La Grange plant. But Canada can make a big fuss when it loses something. Three weeks pay for every year worked sounds pretty good until you remember that when that is gone, “th…th…that’s all folks.” Twenty years of diligent service and you get pay equal to little more than a year. Not much at all if you have no other job prospects to use your specialized skills or earn anywhere near as much.
This is sad the way it turned out , this plant had an history in Canada .
CN was still the only canadian buyer of “CAT” products , the last units bought by CP was the SD90 , since then it was GE all the way ( not counting “hybrid” locos ) .
EMD Locomotive building back in the US. Good for our Economy. Understand all workers in Canada had oppertunity to transfer to new plant in USA and continue working for EMD/Cat.
I almost goes without saying that Cat’s “offer” to the union that would have cut pay in half was intended more to manipulate Canadian law and gain quick closure at minimum cost to Cat than it was actually about keeping the plant open or paying a fair wage for labor.
The race to the bottom continues…
I have mixed feelings about the method CAT used to transfer the work to the US. GM unwillingness to sell EMD to CAT in the first place and instead to an investment group may have forcast this may happen.
Expect to see a growing amount of GETS product in Canada,