Company asks for 50% pay cut from union

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/01/02/end-lockout-london.html

So normally I don't usually post random labour disputes, as they happen all the time but this one really takes the cake and tears it to little pieces and then stomps on those pieces.

Electro-Motive Diesel, owned by Caterpillar, is enjoying good profits right now (Caterpillar is earning around 2.7 billion in profits, which is quite good margin for the industry). So they asked the Canadian Auto Workers union to have employees at the London, Ontario plant to take a 50% pay cut in wages and benefits. That means a wage so low, it's below poverty line.

Talk about negotiations not in good faith.

So is this what we're going to expect for the new year, massive labour disputes as companies screw everyone out of livable wages?

That's pretty ridiculous, could these clowns actually go through with this?

...I smell a very passionate strike against this dreaful wage cut.

I’m a lumberjack and I’m ok. I sleep all night and work all day.

I'm pretty sure the intent is to just screw the CAW out of the jobs. You can't accept that deal. It's not negotiation in good faith, I mean no one in their right mind would go from 35/hour to 16.50/hour. It's below poverty line for God's sake.

They're probably just going to never renegotiate, say the plant is unprofitable and just close it down. The rumours are likely true that they want to shift production to Indiana and then focus on the Buy American clause.

I have a feeling that a strike won't work, given how Harper is with his back to work legislating BS.

Knowing Harper, he'll write legislation that they accept minimum wage and go back to work or face jail time or police crackdown.

edited 2nd Jan '12 1:20:09 PM by breadloaf

This calls for some consumer motherfucking activism, starting with a boycott. What do these bitches sell?

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

Uh, they sell diesel engines for trains. :P

Yeah boycott that stuff, I'm certainly not going to buy from them!

edited 2nd Jan '12 1:26:33 PM by breadloaf

That's more difficult. Diesel engines for trains are not exactly household items. A mass boycott on products shipped by those trains might work, but it would be extremely difficult and hard to organize. If you could get shipping and rail companies to support you and choose a competitor over this company, then you might see a very successful campaign. If you wanted to go the civil disobedience route, human chains in front of train yards might do the trick.

If Premier McGuinty wants to cinch the London-area vote, he could take measures to keep the jobs here, I don't think the provincial government will have much power to do anything, though.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

I know, it's like Woodstock without him.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

He's neither Canadian nor a total sociopath. No calling out other tropers too, btw, it's against the guidelines.

Now, Caterpillar owns Progress Rail, which owns EMD. Anything produced by Caterpillar or its other subsidies can be targeted by a boycott, and a broad boycott of all its products might create enough of a noise to apply pressure.

edited 2nd Jan '12 1:37:45 PM by RadicalTaoist

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

I don't think even Major Tom would stand for this kind of dirty dealing. I mean, who the hell goes to a thirty five dollars an hour job for years and then just suddenly accepts a slash in half pay cut and no benefits? (And also he probably has work or something like most people do at this time of day.)

And wait, Indiana? Is producing in American suddenly cheaper somehow? Or did you mean India?

edited 2nd Jan '12 2:04:02 PM by AceofSpades

Not India, definately Indiana, USA. It's as said above, to take advantage of the Buy America clause (The US does have protectionist regulations). In other words, it's not cheaper, its just to get around American protectionism.

I mean, you can something made abroad, but fitted with parts imported from the US to satisfy Buy America.

edited 2nd Jan '12 2:07:35 PM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On

That sounds like a kind of confusing way to get around the protectionism issue.

You can get around the Buy America clause I was thinking of*

, for amongst other reasons, if the product is not produced by anyone else in the USA — for example, new double-decker buses.

The parts still have to be American-specifiation, though, hence American-built engines for buses built in the UK.

edited 2nd Jan '12 2:17:34 PM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On

Well with manufacturing plants, it's the only way. So "Buy American" is already rearing its ugly head. Obviously if they're going to close down the Canadian plant, it's likely that the American one is probably going to have lower wages to justify the whole ordeal.

...and what is made at the plant? The British Class 66, and the European-gauge version, the EMD Series 66, for instance.

Over 90% of the post-privatisation Freight Locomotives in the UK have been produced there, I'd guess.

Keep Rolling On

And folks in Indiana will be desperate enough to take the low paying jobs anyway, because they've been out of work and prospects for so long.

What a surprise, anti-worker stuff when a Right-wing government is in power to muck everything up.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

Seriously, just fucking can NAFTA already. I won't begrudge those Indianans their jobs, honest.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.

Well, NAFTA is what allows those jobs to be in Ontario in the first place, really.

Get used to it. This is the new normal. If you think you "deserve" to be making anywhere near a living wage, think again. Not to the monied classes. They'd rather sell shit to each other and have the lion's share of a molehill rather than have a good portion of a mountain.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

I'd love to be rid of NAFTA, for multiple reasons.

Free trade is a farce.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

Interesting view to hold for you, Flyboy. Considering what you think of the EU

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

How is NAFTA responsible for a pay cut in Canada again?

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!