24 February, 2012CAW Local 27 members from Electro-Motive Diesel in London, Ontario have voted 95 per cent in favour of a closure agreement that provides enhanced severance packages.
CANADA: With 95 per cent approval yesterday, Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a closure agreement with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), part of Caterpillar Inc.'s Progress Rail Services, in London, Ontario.
The loss of 465 union jobs is tragedy in London, Ontario. EMD proposed in collective negotiations that CAW members reduce their wages from C$35-per-hour to C$16-18, and give up a 50% equivalent of all benefits. When workers said no, on January 1, Caterpillar and EMD locked workers off their jobs at a rail locomotive assembly plant.
Thirty-four days later Caterpillar/EMD announced it would close the operation, move production to a start-up plant in the low-wage - US$12-16-an-hour - city of Muncie, Indiana, six hours to the south of London, where Caterpillar had already assembled a virulently anti-union management team.
Caterpillar bought the London plant in 2010 with a series of government tax breaks. Eighteen months later, the plant is closed and Canadian-made machinery and technical know-how is now leaving the country.
CAW President Ken Lewenza said Canada is in desperate need of a manufacturing jobs strategy. He stated that the free movement of global capital from country to country must be stopped because it is undercutting workers' wages.
"We have to continue the fight," Lewenza said. "Because too many workers are losing their jobs, both union and non-union, because of dead-beat employers - in everything from manufacturing plants to call centres."
Severance packages exceeded what were required by law, partly driven by public indignation of Caterpillar's conduct and mostly by CAW's resolve to get the best possible close-out deals. EMD workers will get three weeks' pay for each year of service and a C$1,500 lump sum payment.
For one-third of the workforce, that means severance payments of 60 weeks' pay or more, while many will average 20-25 weeks. Workers will gain a measure of extended health care coverage, their pension fund will be fully funded, and EMD agreed to settle all claims and grievances with CAW Local 27. That will amount to a C$350,000 payment to the union within 30 days of yesterday.
For further details see the CAW website here:
http://www.caw.ca/en/10975.htm