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Keystone was the first to move to a “right to work” state. Hiram Walker and Cat followed soon after.

Um...Keystone Steel & Wire did not move. Its Bartonville steel mill and associated wire fabrication facilities are still humming with activity. A $75 million modernization project in 1996-1999 and Chapter 11 reorganization in 2004-2005 cut costs for the company.

Hiram Walker & Sons suffered (with other distillers) declining hard liquor sales in the 1970s. The Peoria plant was the "world's largest grain distillery," but too big by the end of that decade. Walker announced in 1979 that it would close its Peoria plant and replace it with a smaller blending and packaging facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

But Archer Daniels Midland Co. bought the Peoria plant and began ethanol, industrial and beverage alcohol operations in 1981. Significant capacity expansion came in 1982 and again in the late 1990s. The company actually employs more people in its distillery and grain terminal-barge dock complex than Hiram Walker did - 500 vs. 150!(closure of Walker's bottling plant in 1981 caused the most job loss.)

Caterpillar moved some component work to Mexico in the 1980s and replaced its York, PA plant with smaller facilities in several southern states. Much small casting It got out of the truck engine business c. 2010 and moved on-highway engine production to Seguin, Texas but still employs 15,000 in the Peoria area.

In East Peoria, the company fabricates power-shift transmissions, case and frame assemblies, undercarriage components and assembles pipelayers and medium and large track type tractors. The Mapleton foundry does engine blocks, heads and liners, EMD locomotive blocks and castings for wind turbine components. A small Peoria facility makes rubber components and a world parts distribution facility is at Morton. The company maintains seveal other large plants in Illinois at Aurora, Decatur, Joliet and Pontiac.

The UAW essentially lost its power and influence in the Peoria area after the 1994-1995 strike. I'd guess the Boilermakers Union Local 158 isn't causing problems for Komatsu America International (former WABCO) because that company is actually completing a "brick-and-mortar" expansion that includes a 200,000 sq. ft. off-highway truck parts warehouse!

Thanks for the clarification. I’d always been told it was because of the right-to-work states. One of my uncles lost his job at Keystone when they moved. Another of my uncles lost his house during the Cat strike. yet another worked extra jobs so he could keep paying the bills whenever there was a strike or a layoff. I always thought it was really stupid when the union called a strike shortly after coming back from a layoff.