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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Caterpillar laying off up to 300 workers in South Milwaukee: Union official
Fox 6 Milwaukee
Jeff Engel
Caterpillar Inc. told South Milwaukee employees Thursday morning that it
plans to lay off 40 percent of its union work force there by June, or
between 250 and 300 production workers, a local union official said.
Fox 6 Milwaukee, The Business Journal’s TV partner, first reported the news.
Local United Steelworkers official Ross Winklbauer confirmed the company’s
announcement to The Business Journal, after he spoke with Kevin Jaskie,
president of USW Local 1343 and a Caterpillar employee.
The union represents about 810 workers at Caterpillar’s South Milwaukee
plant. The Peoria, Ill.-based equipment manufacturer (NYSE: CAT) also has
its global mining equipment unit based in Oak Creek.
The company is citing lower sales as the reason for the cuts, Winklbauer
said. Caterpillar said this month that global retail sales of its machines
dropped 13 percent in the three-month rolling period through February,
compared with the same period a year earlier, according to MarketWatch.
But Winklbauer questioned the timing of the layoff announcement, with labor
talks scheduled to begin Tuesday. The union’s contract expires at the end
of April.
Winklbauer said he wonders if this is an intimidation tactic on Caterpillar
’s part and a reaction to USW calling out the company for training salaried
workers to handle production jobs in the event of a strike. The union sent
a letter to Milwaukee Area Technical College this month asking the school to
stop training Caterpillar salaried employees to do production work.
“Maybe they’re trying to use this to scare the work force,” Winklbauer
said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense that if you really have low sales
and production is going to be cut, why ask MATC to train scabs?”
The company has previously said the first half of this year would be slower,
with some mining customers lowering their capital spending this year.
“We continue to take actions to bring our production in line with demand,”
said Caterpillar spokesman Rusty Dunn in an email to The Business Journal.
“This includes some short-term temporary layoffs and other actions. These
actions vary from location to location, and impact both production and
support and management employees. We know this is difficult for our
employees, but we are taking steps to better align with the current economic
circumstances, while at the same time remain focused on positioning the
company for long-term success.” |
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