Posted on 05/07/2012 12:24:07 PM PDT by robowombat
Edited on 05/07/2012 1:00:52 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — About 800 union workers who rejected Caterpillar Inc.'s latest contract offer walked off the job Tuesday at a plant in Joliet.
Workers with picket signs lined up outside the plant early Tuesday, just hours after their contract expired. The employees, part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, are asking for better wages and health care. They voted Sunday to reject the Peoria-based company's latest contract offer.
(Excerpt) Read more at manufacturing.net ...
Rough road but the way to kick the Union in the ass is to close the plant indefinitely. It would be a hardship but arm guards should be posted with order that any destructive Union members will be shot.
Gee, probably hard find 800 replacement workers....
What percentage of hourly wage goes to Union Dues?
How many weeks will they have to strike, before company reaches break-even to meet the union price?
Union thugs are the only winners in these battles.
Move the jobs South to a Right to Work state.
Don’t close the plant. Hire and Train scab workers and do away with the Union completely.
The Union states that Caterpillar has made record profits, and for some reason they think that means they should get higher salaries and more benefits. In a time when thousands of people are out of work, the Union will get no sympathy from me for trying to extort the company they work for.
everytime i see articles about unions going on strike, i would really like to see a basic listing of the average pay and benefits they receive, so the average joe sixpack can see what they are arguing for more of...
this story is the same old same old...how much do they get now in compensation and what more do they want?
Cat should close this plant and move out of state ; South Carolina or Alabama perhaps.
So....if production is not being affected, then why does the company need 800 union employees at all?
Didn’t Caterpillar already announce plans to move this plant to Indiana?
“We ain’t workin’ and you can’t make us!” - Joe Unioncard
As Democrats and their Union henchmen tighten the noose we can see the entire State of Illinois slowly pass out as they are being strangled to death. Illinois is now circling thedrain.
I bet Catepillar is sloughing off the layers of dead skin bit by bit and showing the union employees that they really are replaceable if they were even needed in the first place. If this strike is anything like the steel union strikes in central OH (many years ago), the strikers will never return to work, the quality and quantity of production will increase without the union, the union will say how the company can’t survive without their greatness, and 20 years later the union workers are still out of a job because they swallowed the union cult kool-aid.
My fingers are crossed that Catepillar is busting the union and hopefully have the upper hand.
Eight hundred more out of the work force - unemployment rate to plummet!
That’s very French of the union...
And will have the same result...
The ‘union’ would be foolish to sigh a 6 year deal with no pay increases. Caterpillar forced a ‘NO’ vote.
Earlier this year, Caterpillar-owned Electro-Motive workers in London, Ontario refused a new contract slashing wages and benefits. After locking out the workers for three weeks, Caterpillar announced it was closing the plant and moving operations to Muncie, Indiana, where it would pay $12.50 an hour compared to $28 an hour in Canada. The Canadian Auto Workers, rather than seeking to unite Canadian and American workers in a common struggle, accepted the closure of the plant.
Best thing would be for them to just go away permanently and let Caterpillar hire folks who actually want to work.
You take a deep breath and accept whatever happens,” said Mr. Bailey, a 19-year-veteran who earns about $25 an hour for assembly and testing work. Many workers hired since May 2005 earn closer to $13 an hour.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303630404577388131822580486.html
No, that was the locomotive plant in Canada that’s moved to Muncie, Indiana.
But I suspect that this one in Illinois may well be shut down also.
In the Baraqqi Depression, there is a nearly unlimited supply of eager replacements.
Don't let the UAW (whatever) communists define the terms of discussion.
Caterpillar has projected record profit this year and gave its top executives big raises in 2011. Total compensation for Caterpillar Chief Executive Douglas Oberhelman jumped 60% in 2011 to $16.9 million.
From what I gathered, sounds like company greed; I side with the ‘Strikers’
Close the plant. Move it to a “right to work” state. End of problem.
Most likely, China will have a new Manufacturing Company locating there.
Why not strike? The economy is solid and grow,,,,,,,uh,,,,,never mind.
Offer detailed Provided no pay raises for six years while health insurance costs would double.
Failed to put the retiree’s health insurance payment plan in writing. Stripped away seniority rights.
Prevented Tier II workers from transitioning to the higher-paid Tier I. Eliminated cost of living increases tied to inflation rates for Tier I workers and failed to provide them for Tier II workers.
Allowed “supplemental” workers to work at the plant for two years with no benefits.
Frozen and eliminated the pension program and shifted everyone to a 401k-type plan.
Company spokesman Rusty Dunn would not comment on the union’s specific concerns.
Tier II workers — who were hired after May 2, 2005 — have been earning $13 an hour for the past seven years and the company’s new contract would have kept them at $13 an hour even with health care costs increasing.
$13 an hour for 13 years with escalating health premiums and no pension is ridiculous.
Top scale for Tier I workers — who were hired before May 2, 2005 — would be frozen at $28 an hour.
All we want is a fair agreement at a time when Caterpillar is making record profits.
The union at Peterbilt in Madison, TN struck over what proved to be about 3 weeks pay. They were on strike for several months when Peterbilt got fed up with them and permanently closed them down and moved 100% of its production to their non-unionized Texas plant.
Caterpillar opened a new plant in N. Little Rock that is thriving - we'll gladly allow the construction of additional assembly lines - there is plenty of adjoining land and plenty of people willing to work.
I’m currently in search of the crow bar to be applied to Public sector Unions.
Preferrably starting with Teacher’s Unions.
During a meeting of Printing Industry executives a trip to this plant was arraigned. Note is was during one of the few intervals of labor peace at Caterpillar and surprising the unions were not on strike.
As we toured the facility, there were numerous examples of low mentality union workers walking around wearing T-Shirts with “F__K Caterpillar” in bold letters.
We were not impressed. It takes a small union mind to tell the company signing your pay check to get “F—Ked”
They just opened a new plant in Texas.
I guess they didn’t learn anything from the last time...
How the CEO and executives are compensated is a reflection of company profits and stock price. If workers want to partake in that, they should buy stock.
Otherwise, they should quit their whining. Manual labor is only worth as much as the cost of hiring and training replacements, and is determined by the free market, not union thuggery.
And, BTW, no company benefits from the adversarial relationship and atmosphere between management and labor that the unions’ deliberately create.
I’m a ‘Conservative’ who supported Cain and Newt but also has a past as a unionized worker. I have seen firsthand, corporate raiders like Mittens come and take over a once profitable company with leveraged buyouts, etc, leaving them bankrupt while the raiders walked away fat n happy.
Making $25/hour with 20 years seniority for heavy production work is not out of line. This push from some extreme right to force $12/hr while the executives reap huge multi-million $$$ severance packages gives force to the occupiers.
Just like politics, there has to be a balance.
After seeing the autoworkers' union and the mineworkers' union screw my dad around, I have NO SYMPATHY for any union. At the upper echelons, ALL unions are communist organizations, and have only POWER on their minds.
I’d like to see the specific demands before I pass judgement...and not the union’s version.
I think I would have offered an increase of 50 cents a year over the 6 years to the tier 2 to get them up to $16/hour, and a cut of $1/year to the tier 1 to cut them to $22 at the end of the 6 years.
The additional long term costs would probably be covered by inflation, and it would help level things out while splitting the Union.
The many views posted here is why the GOP can’t get any ‘blue collar’ support and gives rise to the ‘occupy movement’. When I saw the mentality to promote slave wages it made me look to the DFL for help but I can’t go there, it’s too far left.
There must be a strong middle class if sustained economic stability is ever to return to this country. Paying $25/hr with 20 years seniority is not out of line. To propose paying these same workers half wages doesn’t cut it. Greed is what destroyed capitalism and until the common working man is shown respect it will continue its downward spiral.
If there are capable people who are willing to work at the rate the company pays, then it’s not unreasonable.
.
Until you’ve lived on both sides of the fence, you can’t understand each side’s issues.
That’s called ‘a race to the bottom’ which eliminates the middle class
If somebody can just walk in from the street and do the job, how much should they be paid?
Question 1: Economically speaking, which states are doing better Right-to-work or non-right-to-work?
Question 2: If non-union employers are so terrible, then why do they still have employees?
Question 3: Where is it deemed you have a God given right to an employer provided pension and you are not responsible to plan for your own future?
Question 4: If year after year new employees are added to the retiree pool and are drawing a pension, how can a company be expected to maintain profitability even in a down economy? (in other words how can they be expected to expand in order to pay all workers and retirees: see GM and what remains of United Steel)
Question 5: You mention "greed" as what is destroying capitalism, yet use the "working man's" need for a larger paycheck because the company is more profitable and was able to pay the CEO more as justification. Do you see the irony?
Question 6: How wise is it to walk off of a job in a down economy with actual unemployment over 16% nationwide?
Question 7: Given your statement - Greed is what destroyed capitalism and until the common working man is shown respect it will continue its downward spiral. How is 0bama working out for you? Need I remind you "Teamsters for 0bama," "SEIU for 0bama," and "United Steel for 0bama."
Question 8: How are things in the trucking, steel, and service industries?
Question 9: As far as greed is concerned how do you explain the UAW being paid off through the bailouts of GM and Daimler-Chrysler, while the bondholders (that actually invested in and financed those copanies) were left SOL?
Question 10: Detroit is/was arguably one of the most unionized cities in America, how are things there? I hear that everything is so peaches and cream, you can buy houses buy-one-get-one-free for about the cost of a second-hand VCR.
Extra Credit: What is conservative about using thug tactics to bully employers into unprofitable wage relationships and in effect artificially increasing final product prices (hindering the company's standing against copetitors); versus allowing the free market to decide?
Based on this comment, I assume you are one of the union workers. SO I further assume that you are prepared to suffer the potential consequences of the strike (loss of pay, possible loss of your job entirely, Caterpillar moving operations to another state) without further complaint if your side loses in this gamble you are taking?
Fire the bastards, there are 1600 waiting to fill their jobs who will work without the damn unions.
Bkmk and Bttt
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