The London, Ontario plant of Electro-Motive Diesel, a subsidiary of Caterpillar owned Progress Rail Services, has locked out 400 workers from the plant after expiration of the prior labor contract on December 31st.
Caterpillar has asked that the UAW represented workers take lower hourly wages.
Progress Rail opened a new Muncie, Indiana, operation in late October and, according to a CBC News report the Canadian workers believe production may be moved from the London plant to the new facility in Muncie where wages are lower.
The Economist magazine has reported that the Muncie plant has had difficulty in hiring workers.
50 years ago we used to speculate in school what would result from the constant push for automation to replace people in manufacturing plants. That's when manufacturing dominated Fort Wayne. Today after adding the unanticipated effect of moving plants offshore, we can see the result.
After spending my career in manufacturing, it's still diffcult for me to see how a nation can really prosper if it doesn't make anything itself.
Posted by: Evert Mol | January 03, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Thank you Evert, very well said!
Posted by: Mark Andrews | March 13, 2012 at 04:30 PM