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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By JAMES R. HAGERTY and CAROLINE VAN HASSELT
LONDON, Ontario—Outside a rail locomotive factory owned by Caterpillar Inc.
here, locked-out workers have set up a trailer and a wooden shack to keep
warm between bouts of waving union flags and shouting slogans. In a high-
profile test of union clout in Canada, they are digging in for what looks
like a long struggle.
The workers, who are resisting a new labor contract that would slash their
wages by about 50%, hope Caterpillar will soften its demands soon rather
than face the risk of delaying deliveries of locomotives to customers.
The Canadian Auto Workers union's high-profile battle with Caterpillar over
wages comes at a time when Canadian organized labor is on the defensive.
Pictured here, workers picket Caterpillar in London, Ontario, last week.
Caterpillar Chief Financial Officer Edward Rapp said in an interview that
the company can make the locomotives it needs to deliver this year by using
other plants, including new ones in Muncie, Ind., and Brazil.
"We can meet the demand," Mr. Rapp said. The company wouldn't say how many
locomotives it is due to deliver this year.
Caterpillar also has an agreement with Bombardier Inc. under which that
Canadian company builds locomotives for it at a plant in Sahagún, Mexico.
That agreement predates the lockout.
Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., locked out the 450 locomotive workers on
Jan. 1. Before the lockout, Caterpillar and the Canadian Auto Workers union
were in talks for more than six months over the company's push for cuts in
wages and benefits. Each side has blamed the other for the failure to reach
a pact. Caterpillar extended the terms of the old contract for six months
until the end of 2011 but refused a union request for more time, saying it
didn't "see the value of any further extension."
Employers across Canada are "watching what Cat is doing," said Rolf
Gerstenberger, president of a United Steelworkers of America local union
that represents workers at a plant in Hamilton, Ontario, owned by U.S. Steel
Corp. Mr. Gerstenberger and workers from the Hamilton plant drove 75 miles
to London last week to wave flags in front of the locked plant.
"This Caterpillar lockout is an absolute test case of the union's resolve,"
said Mike Moffatt, an economist at the University of Western Ontario in
London.
The showdown with Caterpillar, known for its willingness to fight organized
labor in the U.S., comes when Canadian unions are on the defensive. The CAW,
which represents the Caterpillar workers in London, is discussing a
possible merger with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union in an
attempt to bulk up. In a recent discussion paper, officials of those unions
wrote that, unless unions become more effective and attract more workers, "
we will steadily follow U.S. unions into continuing decline."
About 32% of Canadian employees are represented by unions, compared with 12%
in the U.S. Excluding government employees, the percentage of Canadian
workers represented by unions has dropped to about 18% from 21% in 1997,
according to Statistics Canada.
One factor in the decline has been a trend since the mid-1990s for Canadian
provinces, including Ontario, to provide for secret ballots by workers on
whether to certify unions rather than having workers merely check a box on a
card, said Benjamin Dachis, an analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, a
Toronto-based conservative think tank. Unions are less likely to win support
in secret ballots.
"We face an incredibly hostile environment both economically and politically
," said Jim Stanford, an economist at the CAW, adding that accepting the
wage cut Caterpillar wants "would be a horrible, horrible precedent."
Workers note that Caterpillar is demanding concessions even as it trumpets
record profit.
Caterpillar has said wage cuts and other contractual changes are needed
because the plant isn't "sufficiently flexible and cost-competitive."
The dispute may boil down to whether Caterpillar believes it can do without
the Ontario plant, its main assembly center for locomotives. The CAW notes
that the Muncie plant is still gearing up to produce on a larger scale. "
Brazil is not even up and running yet," said Bob Scott, the CAW's plant
chairman in London.
Workers at the Ontario plant say Caterpillar last year hired some of their
retired colleagues to help train employees at the new Muncie plant, where
workers aren't represented by a union. Caterpillar has advertised jobs there
at wages ranging from $12 to $18.50 an hour. Wages for most workers at the
Ontario plant are 35 Canadian dollars (US$34.94) an hour, the CAW says.
Caterpillar declined to discuss the prior wage at the Canadian plant.
The Canadian workers say it will be hard for Caterpillar to find enough
workers in Indiana, Brazil or Mexico with the skills needed for the
intricacies of such tasks as welding train parts together. "It takes time"
to learn those skills, said Shaun Oliver, who has worked as a welder at the
plant for six years and was standing near a scrap-wood fire in a steel drum
outside the plant one recent evening. His union flag snapped in a prairie
gale as sparks swirled around half a dozen workers. "You have to know what
you're doing," Mr. Oliver said. "It's not a Lego piece." |
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