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Posted on 10/17/2002 6:22:12 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
CHATHAM, Ont. (CP) - The Navistar truck plant that employs 1,000 workers in Chatham will close next summer as production shifts to Mexico - a devastating blow to the small southwestern Ontario city. The U.S. company that owns Navistar announced the shutdown to employees Thursday, saying closure of the heavy truck plant was "a necessary step" to address competitive market conditions. There was a six-week strike at the plant during the summer.
"Obviously, this decision was made only after exploring every available option to achieve the competitive cost structure needed, given industry demand," Steve Keate, president of International Truck and Engine Corp., said in a statement.
Production will be shifted to the company's Escobedo, Mexico, assembly plant, which was built in 1998.
The move infuriated the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents unionized workers at the factory.
CAW president Buzz Hargrove called the decision a "despicable action" that shows disrespect for the plant's workers.
"It's a slap in the face to say that we're going to transfer work out of Canada, into Mexico - same truck, in slave labour conditions - and ship it back into Canada," Hargrove said in an interview.
Hargrove urged the federal government to step in to fight Navistar on the closure, saying the company should not be allowed to sell trucks in Canada if it won't contribute to the Canadian economy with manufacturing work.
He said Canada could get its heavy-duty trucks from other companies - such as Paccar in Quebec and Freightliner in St. Thomas, Ont. - which both sell and manufacture in Canada.
"I'm calling on the prime minister today to notify Navistar management that they're not going to be able to sell their products in our country," Hargrove said.
The plant is one of southwestern Ontario's biggest industrial employers and its closure is a major blow to Chatham and surrounding area, primarily an agricultural region near Windsor.
Keate said the closure early next summer "better positions International to profitably serve its heavy truck business and contributes to the company's goal of profitability over the business cycle."
Navistar announced in August it would lay off 1,100 workers, mostly at U.S. sites in Ohio and Indiana.
In addition to the 1,000 employees now working at the Chatham factory there are 1,200 on indefinite layoff. The CAW represents 824 hourly-rated workers and 80 office workers in Chatham.
In July, the union signed a two-year contract with the company ensuring the factory would not be closed before June 1, 2003. International Truck said the exact timing for the closing of the plant will be "announced at a later date."
"We are highly confident this decision will strengthen our ability to be competitive in the heavy truck business," Keate said in a release from International Truck's headquarters in Warrenville, Ill.
"The Escobedo facility will continue to meet the standard of quality that International products are known for and that our customers expect."
Keate also praised the Chatham workforce in the closure announcement.
"This has been a very difficult decision, but this decision in no way reflects on the performance of our Chatham employees and the quality trucks they build," he said.
Hargrove commented: "Even in their press release, they compliment their workers on the quality of their work as they throw them out on the street. Such disrespect. It's incredible."
The new labour deal reached in Chatham this summer ended a six-week strike that saw a Windsor CAW member critically injured when he was struck by a van.
The strike resulted from a dispute on how to cut $28 million US in costs at the Chatham plant. International had asked employees to take concessions to keep the plant operating.
The union was furious about tactics used by Navistar in the strike, including trying to use replacement workers.
Speculation about a closure heightened this week after a two-day meeting of Navistar directors in Chicago, the parent company of International Truck and Engine, which owns and operates the Chatham operation.
The union has long argued that since the demise of the Canada-U.S. auto pact in early 2001 - which included regulations that forced automakers to build as many vehicles in Canada as they sell or face tariffs - will lead to more work being shifted to Mexico, where labour costs are lower.
"We've got no auto policy, no government policy governing this industry," Hargrove said. "For the first time since the 1930s, we're catering to the management . . . we can bargain some things as a union, but where you don't, you end up with the Americans making some decisions for American interests and to hell with Canadians."
TONIGHT! 6pm PDT/9pm EDT Unspun With AnnaZ and Guest Hostess DIOTIMA!
ELECTIONS and OMISSIONS!
Plus, let's hear from FReepers around the country about what you're doing in YOUR local area with the midterm elections!
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My preference is Americans building American trucks.
Let the Mexicans and Canadians build their own.
if mexicans have steady jobs don't they have to stay in Mexico to go to that job?
And Americans can stand in the welfare lines?
My reply clearly indicated it was my personal preference.
And you're the one who injected the American labor market into the discussion with your comments regarding illegal Mexican migrants to your state.
Take your high-falootin' "FRegards" and insinuation of "Democrat tactics" and stuff 'em where the sun don't shine, newbie. They contribute very little to "true debate" on this forum.
well, gosh. it costs less to build a transtar where you don't have to support socialist medicine? go figure.
of course, capitalism and enterprise are neo-bad things... or wait... we hate mexico because W loves fox and open borders. gotta get them union votes, too.
or something.
ya think the harverster family gives a poop?
well, i guess i'm a newbie, too. so go stuff it yourself, cobweb.
That's probably what their US counterparts said when these jobs left the US for Canada.
So what is it that you're saying?
That health care costs in the United States are low?
Or that we should adopt Mexico's health care system?
Progressive Democrats is also a party that our wonderfully strong elected Republican officials refuse to see as Communism. After all who is going to push for the New World Order if we don't allow the Progressive Democrats to do it?
That plant has been manufacturing trucks and before trucks, wagons since before 1910. There were no US counterparts. Bad answer.
dunno. probably look damn fine.
Well there ya go...time to build a more efficient plant.
They'd have some class, that's for sure.
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